The basic idea of visibility analysis is to test whether particular locations are theoretically observable from a given observer point (« theoretically » because our data and algorithms can never ideally replicate real-world situations). Such a query yields a yes/no answer for each tested point, which is typically represented as...
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Installing Python packages in QGIS 3 (for Windows)
Python is in the heart of QGIS (or in the guts if you prefer), which enables us to use tons of third party Python libraries. In Linux systems, QGIS will use the main Python installation, but in Windows things get more complicated. QGIS has it’s own Python, which means we...
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Visibility analysis for QGIS 3.0 : tackling big data
Viewshed plugin for QGIS is based on Numpy library for handling raster data. Numpy is tuned for high performance and is (relatively) easy to use. However, it relies heavily on available live memory and will break with voluminous datasets. Which is what elevation models usually are…
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Land visibility in the Mediterranean: a large scale model
Visibility of land was a major consideration for ancient seafaring, for reasons of navigation and security. Even if the open sea travel must have been practised already by the Neolithic period, judging by the colonisation of remote islands and by the exchange of artefacts across the Mediterranean, the sight of...
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Natural places and archaeology
First time I heard of something like “natural places” was some ten years ago at a conference in Slovenia. Several, mostly young researchers were proud to demonstrate an existence of non-man-made features on their sites, features that apparently gained a symbolic value before or during human habitation. For instance, trees...
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