Viewshed Analysis
Viewshed analysis examines what is visible from specific locations or within a defined area using digital elevation models (DEMs) and geographic information systems (GIS). Pioneered by David Wheatley in the 1990s, the method reveals how landscape features (hilltops, valleys, water sources) controlled visibility and movement. Archaeologists use viewshed analysis to understand settlement placement, ritual monument visibility, and territorial organization in prehistoric and historic landscapes.
Source record
Citations copied verbatim from the method’s source record. No claim-level verification is inferred from them.
- Wheatley, D. (1995). Cumulative viewshed analysis: a GIS-based method for investigating intervisibility, and its archaeological application. In G. R. Lock & Z. Stancic (Eds.), Archaeology and GIS (pp. 171-185). · URL
- Llobera, M. (2003). Extending GIS-based visual analysis: the concept of visualscapes. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 17(1), 25-48. · DOI 10.1080/713811741
Curated claims
Claims persisted in the evidence ledger, each with its own assessment.
This view does not invent a claim assessment when the ledger has none.
Related methods
Generated from the method graph and shown as machine-suggested relations — no evidence claim is inferred.