A Method for the Quantification of Aesthetic Values for Environmental Decision Making

The methodology for quantitative evaluation of visual impact considers the appearance and visual quality of a landscape setting as viewed from a series of representative viewpoints “before” and “after” the introduction of a nuclear facility. Procedures to select representative viewpoints are based an facility visibility from the surrounding area, viewing distance, observer position, and impacted viewing populations. A duplicate photo or slide taken from each representative viewpoint is touched up to portray the viewscape condition with the facility. The visual quality of each condition is then evaluated by applying the scaled measurements of intactness, vividness, unity, and importance of the major viewscape components, and these scores combined into a formula yielding a visual quality rating from 1 to 100. Total visual impact of a proposed facility is the sum of visual impacts measured at each representative viewpoint, with the difference between before and after conditions expressed in terms of percent of change modified by population viewing contact. An expression of the relative scarcity or uniqueness of the potentially impacted landscapes serves to protect remote areas and unique natural and cultural features.