« 3 D Geovisualisation of Noise and Visual impact of a proposed wind farm development using a GIS based visual-acoustic 3 D simulation »

Visual presentation has been identified as an effective means of communicating landscape related information. Thus the use of three-dimensional representations, instead of 2D cartographic approach, as a tool of communication for environmental impacts has been increased the last years. 3D geovisualisation approaches are used from policy makers and scientists to communicate with the public for the description and exploration of spatial data in different scales. Using digital landscape visualisations are increasing the transparency and the decoding of spatial information by extending the validity of the environmental representations in a more efficient way. This research is discussing the differences between the 2D cartographic representation and 3D visualisation relating to the potential visual and sound impacts of proposed wind farms development on the island of Lemnos. This paper documents an approach of using 3D representations for visibility and noise prediction levels for wind parks as they are derived from a GIS based spatial simulation, for increasing the public understanding of potential aesthetic and noise impacts of the proposed developments.