This document analyzes building a radio tower in Wyoming to aid search and rescue efforts while balancing environmental aesthetics concerns. Data on the terrain and recreation areas was analyzed using GIS to calculate viewsheds and determine which lakes would be visible from potential tower sites. The results found that 1-3 towers could be seen from various lakes. A single tower between Peak Lake and Lost Pipe Lake was recommended to minimize visual impacts while providing safety benefits. Safety was deemed more important than aesthetics impacts, which could be reduced by modifying tower height or consolidating multiple towers into one.

1. 1
Scientific Analysis of Aesthetics
vs Safety in Wyoming
Scientific Analysis of Aesthetics vs Safety
in Wyoming

2. 2
Scientific Analysis of Aesthetics
vs Safety in Wyoming
Table of Contents
Description Page 1
Methods Page 1
Results Page 1
Discussion Page 1-2
Maps Pages 3-4

3. 3
Scientific Analysis of Aesthetics
vs Safety in Wyoming
Description: Wyoming is a state where there is more pristine environments rather than human
developments making it an ideal place for outdoor recreation. However with the large amounts
of backcountry hikers and skiers comes more threatening opportunities of getting lost. The
Search and Rescue team in the area could benefit greatly from the creation of a radio tower. On
the other side of the spectrum the Sierra Club and the World Wildlife Fund see the introduction
of a radio tower as destroying an aesthetically beautiful area that they say, ”should remain
forever wild”. Science can be used to make a compromise between the two making sure that
the visible impact of the towers is not as large as the benefit the search and rescue gains from
having the tower.
Methods: Data about the Gannet Peaks Area in Wyoming which includes the digitial elevation
models of the peaks in the area as well where local recreation. Next viewshed should be
calculated from the height of the highest tower to prevent ArcGIS from automatically creating a
flat viewshed rather than applying it to the various peak heights. This made it so that one could
see where the area is viewable and is not viewable in a Boolean Fashion. To input the average
height tower height which I calculated to be about 60 meters from an average of towers in the
US I added another field in the attribute table for tower layer. The attribute table also showed
quadrangle area and where each tower had a view. Next came changing the recreation layer
and tower layer from vector to raster so that they could be combined in raster calculator. Next
came reclassifying the lake layers for a value of 1. Next came multiplying the towers by the
viewshed to calculate how many towers could be viewed from each lake.
Results and Summary: The area within the quadrangle that is affected varied from tower to
tower. The highest value went up to 436241 meters while the lowest value was 43522 meters
squared. The lakes that will be affected by each individual tower would be Big Tourist lake,
Flagstone Lake, Desolation Lake, Klondike Lake, Scott Lake, Lost Pipe Lake, Stone Hammer lake,
Peak Lake, Dale Lake, Elbow Lake, Summit Lake, and Summer Ice Lake. From Lost Pipe Lake the
most towers could be seen at 3 and 2 can be seen from Scott lake and Big Tourist lake. From
the rest of the lakes that were referred to only 1can be seen as seen in the map in figure 1. As
seen in the second figure 2 Scott Lake has a view of 6 radio towers. Finally a good
recommendation for a radio tower spot would be the one located between Peak Lake and Lost
Pipe Lake.
Discussion: Overall I believe that the safety of people is more important the aesthetics that
have to be given up from building a radio tower. Tower height can be modified based on
preferences but 60 meters is generally a smaller respectable height. Also instead of building
multiple radio towers a single could be made eliminating worst scenario viewshed spots.

4. 4
Scientific Analysis of Aesthetics
vs Safety in Wyoming
Figure 1: Shows both how many towers can be seen from each of the recreational
sites and the viewshed of each tower or where peaks are visible and where they are not
Lost Pipe
Peak Lake
Klondike

5. 5
Scientific Analysis of Aesthetics
vs Safety in Wyoming
Figure 2: Shows how many towers can be seen from each of the recreational sites
Desolation
Scott
Big Tourist