Historic townscapes and landscape scenery represent important and unique features of cities and regions. However, stakeholders often face major challenges with regard to their protection because it is necessary to coordinate various planning levels. Similarly, it is frequently necessary to integrate municipal planning processes into a large-scale regional planning context so as to generate comprehensive assessments which make it possible to evaluate the impact of decisions in planning processes on the conservation and sustainable development of UNESCO World Heritage properties.

Field-of-view studies serve as a tool for identifying, mapping and documenting visual links of cultural-historical relevance in World Heritage properties and their environments. They therefore form an essential basis for the assessment of potential negative impacts of planning processes and planned projects on the visual integrity of historic townscapes and landscape scenery and characteristic features of UNESCO World Heritage properties. Consequently, potential conflicts can already be avoided in planning measures thus making field-of-view studies a useful supplementation to both Management Plans and Heritage Impact Assessments.

We have long-standing experience in developing field-of-view studies in Germany and abroad and offer advisory support in this area.