Earticle

Within planning process, landscape visibility assessment has advantages of identifying landscape character and changes. As a planning tool, planners and other professionals are able to exam various planning scenarios effectively. However, current visibility analysis maps have been produced under raster driven information, which lacks in detail and its accuracy. In response of current phenomena of production of landscape visibility analysis and adaptation within planning process, the research aimed to develop an advanced visibility analysis programme based on vector data (NURBS) in order to improve accuracy of the process and result. In order to rectify of the new application, a residential development in Seoul has been chosen as case study. With newly produced visibility analysis produced from VE3D, the study analyses terrain, high-rise building blocks and any built up structures in 3D forms. After case study, VE3D which was developed for visibility analysis from vector-based datasets was able to illustrate high level of detail in visibility identification better than using conventional Arcview 3.3 programme. Moreover, VE3D can produce a visibility analysis in reflecting complicated structures such as flyovers and high-rise tower blocks. The research also suggests that VE3D is able to contribute to in-depth and credible visibility analysis and this can be achieved by further research on application within various terrains and built up structures.