ArcGIS Pro Visibility Analysis – Modeling Ground-Level Viewers with DSM Screening

LeahCharash — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 21:18:16 GMT

I’m running a visibility/viewshed analysis in ArcGIS Pro for a visual impact assessment and am trying to model the following real-world condition:

• Observers: points representing project features (e.g., solar panels) with a height offset above ground.
• Viewers: hypothetical observers anywhere within a surrounding study area, standing ~5.5 ft above the ground surface.
• Obstructions: vegetation and buildings captured in a DSM derived from LiDAR.

Conceptually, I want the model to evaluate:
viewer elevation = DEM + eye height
obstructions = DSM

However, the Visibility tool only accepts a single surface raster, meaning if I run the analysis on the DSM the viewer elevation is evaluated relative to the canopy/building surface, which can produce artifacts where forest pixels show visibility while adjacent ground pixels do not.

Currently I run:

Visibility(DEM) → ground-level potential visibility
Visibility(DSM) → screened visibility

My question:
Is there a better way in ArcGIS Pro to model ground-level viewers (DEM + eye height) while using a DSM to represent intervening obstructions, ideally in a single analysis step?

I’m curious whether anyone has solved this. Any advice or references would be greatly appreciated!

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ArcGIS Pro Visibility Analysis – Modeling Ground-Level Viewers with DSM Screening