Buildings, Case Study, Planning, TrueViewVisuals

Visualising vegetation and screening over time


We recently worked with Muirhall Energy on their Energy Storage project in Erskine.  This project is to support the planning application for the construction of an energy storage site of 16 battery storage containers and associated other infrastructure. TrueViewVisuals produced the photomontages including screening effects from vegetation planting.

This project has now been submitted into planning and is awaiting Renfrewshire councils decision (expected Summer 2018). The reference number is 18/0286/PP.

Model

2D plan of site

To produce the visualisations that Muirhall wanted to complete this project, we created a 3D model of the site based on a 2D CAD diagram.

There were three components to the site layout:

  • 16 battery storage containers (shown dark green) plus a 33kv Substation shown in grey)
  • Access track (light grey)
  • Area of Vegetation screening (realistically shown as mix of hedge and tree)

We converted this 2d Diagram into a 3D model that we could view in our 3D viewing software. The terrain data was loaded from OS Terrain 50 to provide a terrain model to add this to.

The process of converting to a 3D model highlighted that the vegetation area would not adequately screen the site. This allowed the planning team to redesign the vegetation area to better screen the proposal.

Photomontage

The TrueVuewVisuals software allows the use of real photography to show the proposed development and provide a more realistic view of what the effect of the development will be. Photography for three viewpoints was supplied by the Landscape Architects and used to create 90° by 14.2° photomontages and matching wirelines showing the proposed development.

Vegetation and Screening

One of the key aspects that Muirhall wanted to communicate was how the proposal would be screened by the vegetation that was to be added.  In consultation with Landscape architects at Wood Group, we added in vegetation at appropriate heights after 1 year and 10 years of growth. These were to be a mixture of hedgerow and trees shown with similar foliage to the existing trees in the photography. As the photography was taken in winter, the foliage would be sparse and brown.

Vegetation at 1 year and 10 years growth

 

Planning Application

For submission in the final planning application, the three photomontages were wrapped in a template to show all the metadata required.  These are designed to show 3 views from the same viewpoint: the baseline (before the proposal was built, the proposal with vegetation at 1 year and the proposal with vegetation at 10 years).

Get in touch

If our Photomontage production service could help your project (across any of our domains – Buildings, Grid, Solar or Wind) give us a call +44 141 374 2741 or shoot us and email hello@trueviewvisuals.com or signup to our newsletter to keep in touch.