Making trees visible: A GIS method and tool for modelling visibility in the valuation of urban trees

Abstract

Tree visibility is a key determinant of cultural ecosystem services of urban trees. This paper develops a flexible, efficient and easy-to-use GIS method for modelling individual tree visibility to support tree valuation. The method is implemented as a GRASS GIS AddOn tool called v.viewshed.impact, making it available to a broad spectrum of users and purposes. Thanks to empirically validated underlying algorithms and parallel processing, the method is accurate and fast in analysing high-resolution datasets and large numbers of trees. We demonstrate the method in two use cases in Oslo, Norway, showing that it provides an alternative to field-based assessment of visibility indicators in tree valuation methods and facilitates the inclusion of complex visibility indicators not possible to assess in the field. We argue that the method could also be used for tree management and planning, urban ecosystem accounting and neighbour conflict resolution related to trees.