Solving Error Problems in Visibility Analysis for Urban Environments by Shifting from a Discrete to a Continuous Approach

Visibility analysis is an important part of the design process of urban environments. Apart from being a key task of every architect and urban designer visibility analysis´ relevance is also strongly confirmed in the disciplines history. Two main mathematical approaches currently exist for visibility analysis, one based on a discrete spatial grid and lines of sight, and one based on continuous space and lines of sight. An estimation of the errors involved in the discrete approach, by using the continuous approach, is a necessary condition for visibility analysis to evolve, as error analysis is in any scientific analysis.