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I would like to share a just published article in Landscape and Urban Planning: “Deconstructing viewshed analysis makes it possible to construct a useful visual impact map for wind projects.”

https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedirect.com%2Fscience%2Farticle%2Fpii%2FS016920462200072X&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cb01462adf5ed4dfcd27108da2d028cbd%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C637871786217636508%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=8cNKMtF7wGCvz1ycM2Pz%2Fh35pLkL7qMEKwoNvVBERq4%3D&reserved=0

The article presents a GIS analysis that simultaneously considers the distance of the turbine from the viewer, the exposure or amount of the turbine that is visible, and the project’s extent or number of turbines that are visible. These are all factors that are recognized as key determinants of a wind project’s visual impact, but to my knowledge it is the first time they were put together into an index that is supported by the current research literature.

The procedure begins by evaluating and mapping the visual impact of each individual turbine, something which participants in the GIS visual analysis workshop at the last VRS conference indicated that they wanted to know (and improperly intuited from the standard cumulative viewshed). It then combines the results for individual turbines to map the project’s visual impact to viewers in the surrounding landscape. The results at KOP viewpoints in the VIA’s analysis correlate very highly (r = 0.796) with this GIS analysis. The rating scale used for the KOP analysis can the be used to calibrate the severity of the visual impact map.

The Chesapeake Bay Trust approached T. J. Boyle Associates to further develop this approach to make use of their high-resolution terrain and land cover elevation data. In addition to this wind energy case study, TJBA completed a solar project case study that was the subject of an article in the Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture:

https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgispoint.de%2Fgisopen-paper%2F6984-which-locations-in-a-solar-energy-project-contribute-the-greatest-visual-impact.html%3FIDjournalTitle%3D6&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cb01462adf5ed4dfcd27108da2d028cbd%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C637871786217636508%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=rTrN4YVXojVmCPQWrueMxX5cOCY%2BNJIT4pomVS3%2BHJw%3D&reserved=0

These articles are the result of that project, which was funded by a grant from EPA.

We would hope that interested parties would begin to demand that the visual impact of individual turbines be included in VIAs, as well as a map of the project’s visual impacts. It is our belief that comparing a GIS analysis to the results of a KOP analysis should also become a standard component of VIAs for large projects.

James Palmer
T. J. Boyle Associates
Burlington, VT

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