Three Sampling Methods for Visibility Measures of Landscape Perception

The character of a landscape can be seen as the outcome of people’s perception of their physical environment, which is important for spatial planning and decision making. Three modes of landscape perception are proposed: view from a viewpoint, view from a road, and view of an area. Three sampling methods to calculate visibility measures simulate these modes of perception. We compared the results of the three sampling methods for two study areas. The ROPE method provides information about subspaces. The road method enables the analysis of sequences. The grid point method calculates visibility measures at almost every location in space, providing detailed information about transitions and pattern change between original and new situations. The mean visibility values for the study areas reveal major differences between the sampling methods. Combining the results of the three methods is expected to be useful for describing all the facets of landscape perception.