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QGIS Model: Viewshed and Visual Impact (ZTV)

Zone of Theoretical Visibility for a proposed wind turbine, mast or tall building, with visible area by distance band and the buildings that can see it.

£1.00

How you get it: Pay by card through Stripe. Your download link appears on the order confirmation page as soon as payment goes through. Files are not sent by email, so download yours there (or keep that page's address to come back to it).

Format
ZIP: .model3 file, PDF guide and licence, 124 KB
Requirements
QGIS 3.18 or later (tested on 3.44). Finding buildings needs the QuickOSM plugin and an internet connection
Licence
CC BY-NC 4.0 (attribution: Semir Kahrimanovic / Bozmaps)

About this model

Pick a structure location and height, add a DTM or DSM, and the model works out where a viewer at 1.5 m eye height could see the top of the structure within your study radius, allowing for earth curvature and refraction (GDAL Viewshed). It reports the visible area in hectares, the visible area and percent visible in each distance band, and, if you tick the option, downloads OpenStreetMap buildings and lists those that can see the structure with their distance to it. A DTM gives the worst-case bare-earth ZTV; a DSM includes screening by existing buildings and trees. One structure per run; the README shows how to run several as a batch and add them up to count how many each place can see.

What's included

  • Viewshed and Visual Impact QGIS model (.model3)
  • PDF guide with inputs, workflow, batch use for wind farms, test results and limitations
  • Licence

Inputs

  • DTM or DSM
  • Structure location (point)
  • Structure height and viewer eye height
  • Study radius and distance band width

Outputs

  • Visibility raster (1 = visible)
  • Visible area polygons with hectares
  • Visibility by distance band
  • OSM buildings that can see the structure, with distance

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