No High Ground: Visualising Scotland’s Renewable Energy Landscapes using Rapid Viewshed Assessment Tools

/ Matt Artz

Proceedings of the GIS Research UK 20th Annual Conference, 2012

Steve Carver and Michael Markieta

“Rapid viewshed modelling techniques are used to address the conflicts between landscape protection and renewable energy goals in Scotland. The area of the country currently without a view of a wind turbine is calculated and used to identify areas that could be developed as wind farms without further impacting on the non-visible areas.

Viewshed analysis of core wild land areas in Scotland

Viewshed analysis of core wild land areas in Scotland

“The analysis is repeated for protected landscapes and core wild land areas and lowest impact zones identified. The method used relies on the use of voxel-based real-time viewshed modelling techniques to make these analyses practical.”