What Is Visual Amenity in a Visual Impact Assessment?

Visual Impact Assessment

A proposed development can change more than what is visible from a particular location. It can also change how people experience the visual environment around them. Within a Visual Impact Assessment, this experience is commonly considered through the concept of visual amenity.

In Brief

Visual amenity describes the quality and experience of the visual environment for people using or experiencing a place. Within a Visual Impact Assessment, the question is not simply whether a proposed development can be seen, but how the resulting visual change may affect that experience. Visual amenity is related to views and visual receptors, but it is not the same as visibility, visual sensitivity or view loss.

What does visual amenity mean?

Visual amenity describes the quality and experience of the visual environment as perceived by people who live in, work in, visit, travel through or otherwise use a place.

It can relate to the views people experience and to the broader visual setting in which everyday activities take place. Depending on the location, that setting might include buildings, streets, vegetation, open land, infrastructure, water, topography or other elements that contribute to the existing visual environment.

Within a Visual Impact Assessment, visual amenity provides a way of considering how a proposed change may affect people's experience of that environment.

Is visual amenity simply about whether a development looks attractive?

No. Visual amenity should not be reduced to whether an individual person thinks a proposed development looks attractive or unattractive.

People can have different aesthetic preferences. Visual assessment instead considers the visual environment in a more structured way, including who may experience a change, the existing visual condition, the nature of the proposed development and the resulting change within relevant views.

This does not mean human experience is removed from the assessment. Visual amenity is inherently concerned with how places are seen and experienced by people. The distinction is that the assessment is not simply a collection of personal opinions about whether a design is visually appealing.

The applicable methodology and planning context determine how those visual considerations are evaluated for a particular project.

Who experiences visual amenity?

Visual amenity is experienced by people. Within a VIA, the people or groups whose views or visual experience may be affected can be considered as visual receptors.

Depending on the project and its surroundings, these may include residents, visitors, recreational users, people using public spaces, road users, workers or other groups who experience the visual environment.

Different receptors may experience the same development differently because their location, activity, duration of viewing and relationship with the surrounding environment can differ.

For a closer explanation of this distinction, see What Is a Visual Receptor in a Visual Impact Assessment?

Visual amenity is not simply about whether a proposal can be seen. It concerns how visual change affects people's experience of the surrounding environment.

How can a development affect visual amenity?

A development may affect visual amenity when it changes the visual environment experienced from relevant locations.

Depending on the project and assessment methodology, relevant considerations may include the apparent scale and visible extent of the proposal, its relationship with existing visual elements, the degree of screening, contrast with the surrounding environment and the nature of the change between existing and proposed conditions.

The presence of change does not determine its visual effect by itself. A proposal needs to be considered within the particular view, setting and receptor experience in which that change occurs.

Some of these considerations may contribute to the magnitude of visual change, depending on the methodology used for the assessment.

Is visual amenity the same as visibility?

No. Visibility and visual amenity answer different questions.

Visibility establishes that a proposal may be seen and can help describe the nature or extent of that visibility. Visual amenity concerns the experience of the visual environment and how a proposed visual change may affect that experience.

A development can therefore be visible without that fact alone establishing the degree or significance of its effect on visual amenity.

This distinction is explored further in Visibility vs Visual Impact: Why Being Visible Does Not Automatically Mean High Visual Impact.

Is visual amenity the same as visual sensitivity?

No. Visual amenity describes the quality and experience of the visual environment, while visual sensitivity concerns how susceptible or important a particular visual experience may be in relation to proposed change.

Depending on the assessment methodology, sensitivity may take account of matters such as the type of receptor, viewing circumstances, the receptor's relationship with the visual environment and qualities or values associated with the view.

Sensitivity can therefore help inform how a change affecting visual amenity is evaluated, but the two concepts are not interchangeable.

See What Is Visual Sensitivity in a Visual Impact Assessment? for a more detailed explanation.

Is visual amenity the same as view loss?

No. Visual amenity is broader than the loss or obstruction of a particular view.

View loss generally concerns the effect of a proposed development on an existing view available from a particular location. Visual amenity can encompass the wider experience of the visual environment, including changes that do not involve the complete or substantial loss of a specific view.

For example, a proposal may remain within an otherwise available view while changing its composition, character or visual experience. Conversely, questions about the loss of a particular private view can involve planning considerations that extend beyond the broader definition of visual amenity.

For this reason, visual amenity and view loss should not be treated as alternative names for the same assessment question. For the NSW planning context specifically, see How Is View Loss Assessed in NSW?

Can visual amenity apply to both public and private views?

Visual effects may be experienced from both public and private locations, depending on the proposal and assessment context.

Public locations might include streets, parks, walking routes, recreational areas, lookouts or other publicly accessible places. Private receptors may include residents experiencing views from homes or private property.

The relevance and treatment of these views can differ according to the project, jurisdiction, planning framework and applicable assessment methodology. A private view should not automatically be treated in exactly the same way as a public view, nor should one category automatically be assumed to be more important in every assessment.

The purpose of the VIA is to identify and assess the visual experiences relevant to the particular proposal and its planning context.

Does a change in visual amenity automatically mean an unacceptable visual impact?

No. A change to the visual environment does not automatically mean that the resulting visual effect is significant or unacceptable.

Development changes places. The role of visual assessment is not to assume that all visible change is adverse, but to understand the nature of that change and evaluate its visual effects using the relevant project context and methodology.

Depending on the methodology, this may involve consideration of the receptors experiencing the change, their sensitivity, the magnitude of the visual change and the existing characteristics of the visual environment.

Whether a particular visual effect is acceptable is ultimately considered within the applicable planning and assessment framework rather than determined simply by the presence of visual change.

How is visual amenity considered within a Visual Impact Assessment?

The precise approach depends on the assessment methodology, but visual amenity is generally considered through an understanding of the people experiencing the visual environment and the change that the proposed development may introduce.

This can involve identifying relevant visual receptors, establishing representative viewpoints, documenting existing visual conditions and considering how the proposal would alter those conditions.

Where required by the applicable methodology, factors such as visual sensitivity and magnitude of visual change may then be used to help evaluate the resulting visual effects.

Visual material such as photography or photomontages may also help communicate the existing and proposed visual conditions from selected locations.

The objective is not simply to catalogue what can be seen. It is to understand the visual change in relation to the people, views and visual environment that may be affected.

Visual amenity within the wider assessment

Visual amenity is one part of understanding how a proposed development may affect its visual environment. It connects the physical change created by a proposal with the experience of the people who may see and experience that change.

That makes it closely related to visual receptors, viewpoints, existing visual conditions, visibility and the nature or magnitude of visual change. These concepts work together, but they answer different assessment questions and should not be treated as interchangeable terms.

A Visual Impact Assessment brings those elements together within the methodology and planning context appropriate to the project, providing a structured basis for understanding and communicating potential visual effects.