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Using WindPRO 2.3 for Visual Environmental Impact Assessment

The County of Northern Jutland in Denmark (Nordjyllands Amt) is investigating the possibility to re-create a wetland area near the town of Vilsted. This new wetland comes with a shallow water lake area with surrounding meadows. The project covers a land area of approximately 900 hectare, and an implementation of the project is supposed not only to increase the ‘quality’ of the countryside but also to reduce emission of nitrogen into the nearby fjord (Limfjorden) with 200 tonnes per annum.

In order to obtain an overview of the visual impact of the proposed changes it was decided to carry out a number of visualizations (photomontages). The visualizations should show the meadows with nearby reed ‘forests’ and a large free water surface. All reed areas and the water surface should be generated artificially. To complete this task, the County of Northern Jutland and EMD (Energi- og Miljødata) joined to make the necessary modifications to WindPRO. These modifications are – with the version 2.3 – available for all users of WindPRO.

Sample photos

Below is shown a number of sample photos from the site. All photos have been rendered with WindPRO 2.3. The panorama photo has been stitched using the software Photo Stitch from Canon. The stitching was done after rendering the individual photos separately. Some of the photos required some pre and post-processing; this was done using Paint Shop Pro 7.0.

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1st photo: Panorama photo (original)

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1st photo: Panorama photo with the new lake and reed 'forest'

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2nd Photo: A small stream.

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2nd Photo: Rendered lake with reed.
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3rd Photo: Meadow.

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3rd Photo: Meadow area with lake in the distance.

Brief Technical Overview / Description

The following software was used to complete the task:


Reed/Straw bitmap unit (one out of four used bitmaps for modelling the reed).		 The input data available for this task were:
  • Digital images from the site with GPS-logged position and compass logged viewing direction
  • Height contour lines in low-resolution (equidistance 5 meters) as well as high-resolution height contour lines (0.25 meter equidistance).
  • High-resolution aerial photography of the area. (actually not needed for this task – but nice for identifying control points when calibrating the camera model).
  • Close up photography of reed-‘forest’ (see picture to the right).
  • Close up photos of free water surfaces

Main parts of the input data were available as GIS-files (ArcView shape files). These GIS-files are imported into the WindPRO area objects (lake and reed areas) or line objects (height contour lines). The artificial objects (reed) were generated using surface textures from the close up photos. The texture from the water surface was taken from an aerial photograph.


Part of the site (extract from WindPRO).

Above is shown a screenshot from WindPRO. The shot shows a part of the site with two photo points marked by the green camera angles (angle showing the camera focus). The hatched areas are the new lake areas – these areas were imported from the GIS-files. Actually, the areas are generated from high resolution height contours, where the ‘deep water’ areas are supposed to become free water surfaces and ‘shallow waters’ are supposed to contain reed. Differences in hatching are actually different water depths.

Additional information

The complete environmental impact assessment (VVM-analysis) as well as further information on the Vilsted Sø project can be found by following the links below. The language on the linked pages is Danish, but foreign readers may also enjoy the pages. In the pdf-file below more rendered pictures are shown.

Vilsted Lake main homepage

Environmental impact analysis (pdf-format) – with more photos

You are also very welcome to contact EMD for further information on the WindPRO system and its abilities.





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Tel.: +45 9635 4444  Fax: +45 9635 4446  E-mail: emd@emd.dk