[1] The book features cases studies such as the damming of the Arrow Lakes in British Columbia, the relocation of the village of Iroquois as part of the Saint Lawrence Seaway project, and the construction of a NATO base in rural New Brunswick.

[2] Five of the book's six case studies explicitly feature megaproject development: the construction of CFB Gagetown, which displaced residents of Gagetown, New Brunswick; the development of Ontario's nuclear power industry, focusing on the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station; the Saint Lawrence Seaway Project, focusing on the relocation of the village of Iroquois, Ontario; the damming of the Columbia River and its effect on British Columbia's Arrow Lakes; and the construction of a heavy water production plant near Inverhuron Provincial Park on the shores of Lake Huron.

In each of the cases Parr draws extensively on oral interviews with people who were directly affected by such developments, such as local residents and nuclear plant workers.

Given that the book focuses on sensory experiences, this component of the project was designed to provide an opportunity to engage with the material in other ways than just textual, including imagery, audio clips, graphic representations, and more.

[8] One historian has suggested that Sensing Changes "might be the work of Canadian history that has had the biggest effect outside of Canada since that of Harold Innis.