Introducing visual neighbourhood configurations for total viewsheds.

Abstract

The Visual Neighbourhood Configurations (VNCs) approach is presented: a new approach for exploring complextheories of visual phenomena in landscapes by processing total viewsheds. Such theories most commonly con-cern the configuration of visual properties of areas around locations rather than solely the visual properties ofthe locations themselves. The typical approach to interpreting total viewshed results by classifying cell values istherefore problematic because it does not take cells’local areas into account. VNC overcomes this issue byenabling one to formally describe area-related aspects of the visibility theory, because it formally incorporatesthe area around a given viewpoint: the shape and size of neighbourhoods as well as, where relevant, thestructure and expectation of visual property values within the neighbourhood. Following a brief review thatserves to place the notion of the VNC in context, the method to derive visual neighbourhood configurations isexplained as well as theVNC analysis toolsoftware created to implement it. The use of the method is thenillustrated through a case-study of seclusion, hiding and hunting locales afforded by the standing stone settingsof Exmoor (United Kingdom)