Module 3: LiDAR Visibility Analysis

 During this week’s assigned module, I had the opportunity to learn more about the topic of visibility analysis. Prior to taking this course, I had no experience working with 3D maps. The concentration of my work was with 2D maps on a map view. In this lesson, I was able to learn more in depth how to analyze and work with maps in a local scene view and a global scene view. I hope to one day work with a map on the global scene to experience a map that needs the Earth’s curvature to display weather events like a hurricane. Another interesting thing I learned about in the Introduction to 3D Visualization course was the use of rule packages to quickly symbolize 3D data. I’m so used to adjusting symbology on a 2D scale and it is so convenient to just find a rule package that can be applied to all of your 3D data, especially large sets of data. 

In the other training module I completed, I created a 3D global scene and learned how to properly publish it on ArcGIS Online. It can be viewed at this link here. I applied what I learned to change the sun and time of the year on a global scene to adjust the daylight. I created a few building scene views to display different angles and environments of the 3D buildings I created. Using scene layer packages was definitely one of my more favorite modules because I learned how to create these layer packages which I had no experience with before. Now, I am able to share my work with others!

One of my favorite tools that I used in the line of sight analysis training module was the construct sight lines tool. Once I saw the map examples provided prior to the exercise, I was intrigued at how such a tool could create lines from a point to determine if there is an obstruction to the line of sight for a parade. I imagine a tool like this is utilized for event planning needing security detail or even for the use of analyzing crime scenes. 

I hope to one day utilize visibility analysis to conduct field work in my field of environmental science. I believe it could be helpful in ecosystem restoration projects that would need a global map scene to display locations of new trees being planted.