viewshed3d: An r package for quantifying 3D visibility using terrestrial lidar data

Abstract

Visual information affects animal behaviour and fitness in diverse ways, but a lack of suitable methods to quantify visibility in three-dimensional (3D) environments limits applications of the concept of visibility in ecological research. The viewshed3d r package is dedicated to quantifying the visual environment from a single location or from a cumulation of viewpoints based on 3D point clouds acquired with terrestrial laser scanning. We present the entire workflow required to prepare the data and perform the visibility analyses in viewshed3d. This approach can help unlock the potential contributions of viewshed analyses to the emerging subdiscipline of ‘viewshed ecology’.