INTEGRATION OF COMPUTERIZED VISUAL SIMULATION AND VISUAL ASSESSMENT IN ENVIRONMENTAL-PLANNING

During recent decades, changes in the landscape have occurred rapidly and very dramatically. Increasing environmental awareness makes it necessary to develop methods which assist in assessing and evaluating environmental change including visual impacts on the landscape. Existing legal regulations in Switzerland regarding the visual landscape and its protection are examined. Technical difficulties in the visualization of landscape change, methodological problems in the evaluation of landscape beauty, and the lack of clarity in integrating visual aspects in the planning process are identified as major reasons for the insufficient consideration of visual aspects in practice. As an example, a proposed hydroelectric power station at the Bernina Pass in the Swiss Alps (Lago Bianco) is discussed, to illustrate how new computerized visualization techniques can be applied to help fulfil legal regulations and to predict the visual consequences of planned alterations and possible future changes.