Viewshed in webmap/app: 3 different methods? Why? Which one

TimBarnes — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 19:41:58 GMT

We have an on premise Enterprise setup which I'm currently designing/implementing.

One of the requirements is for users to be able to calculate a viewshed through a browser for planning purposes. This doesn't need to be maintained as a persistent layer- It will just be used to answer a specific question. Ideally I don't want any sign-on required (all data is hosted locally, no 'credits' will be used so anyone should be able to get the answer)

As far as I can tell, there are 3 ways to do this:

1) Through a custom viewshed geoprocessing service (GitHub - Esri/elevation-gp-python: ArcGIS elevation analysis tool that allows you to set up an in-house viewshed geoproc… )

2a) Through the built-in analysis tools within the Enterprise webmap (which require a dedicated image server?)

2b) Through WAB widget referencing the same tools

I've already setup a cached elevation service for webscenes which works well-1st question: Why can this not also be used in any elevation utility analysis? I'd prefer not to 'reinvent the wheel'/store massive amounts of data/have to update twice as many services which essentially do the same.

2nd question- It's not clear to me where the built-in tools gets its terrain from? (I've added both the terrain service and another terrain image service as layers to the webmap before clicking the Analysis > Viewshed button, but no layers are listed?)

Can anyone give any advice about the best approach?

topic Viewshed in webmap/app: 3 different methods? Why? Which one in ArcGIS Enterprise Questions

Viewshed in webmap/app: 3 different methods? Why? Which one