Visibility Analysis for Open Spaces in Urban Areas: Coupling Environmental Quality and Human Comfort Assessment

The spatial configuration of places affects the environmental quality, the human comfort and the practices of use of space. Both domains of urban morphology and perceptual analysis investigate the relationship existing between open spaces and built-up areas from different perspectives. The quantification of visible areas—what scholars call the visibility analysis—represents the first quantitative exploration that can be performed just by referring to the 3-D model of a physical space. In fact, extracting the geometrical features and indicators of visible areas allows to derive some first considerations about the potential experience in terms of human comfort and prediction of usage of that space. This study introduces available visibility analysis tools and measures and critically discusses the limitations of a purely quantitative approach. In fact, I argue that integrating the quantitative visibility analysis to the qualitative perceptual analysis of the visible elements (through photography and 3-D modeling) can represent a crucial step towards a more realistic and reliable visual analysis of space.