11.0 Concluding Comments


Summary of Findings

Whilst this research is not intended to prove or disprove whether the funicular railway proposal constitutes either a positive or negative impact a judgement must be made. According to the analysis performed the new viewshed created by the funicular does increase by a significant amount, although the level of visual intrusion is more difficult to assess. The top station is the more visual point of both the existing and the proposed developments, with a considerable sky lining effect. CCC is limited in possible locations to site any new uplift development due to the existing ski infrastructure and the whilst the funicular plans are not yet finalised the development will constitute a visual scar on the landscape. There is a general acceptance that the uplift facilities need replacing but if the visual effects of redevelopment are not acceptable then it is difficult to see a commercial future for skiing in the Cairngorms. Highland Regional Council (1996) note that the physical characteristics of funicular railways mean that the station terminal can be designed to be lower than gondola or chairlift stations.

The effect on access time from the proposed visitor management plan is quite significant. The time increase for walkers if they decide to walk on to the plateau from the North can be viewed as either good or bad, depending upon your point of view. Conservationists will like the decrease in accessibility while hill walkers will bemoan the significant amount of extra time added to their walk in. Walkers may also begrudge the fact that whilst they have to begin from Glenmore, tourist and day trippers can drive straight to the Day Lodge for their ascent of the plateau. Easy access from this location to the lower reaches of Cairn Gorm mean that this area is likely to endure significant pressure from visitors.

Have the research aims being met?

On the whole the aims of this research have been achieved, especially in respect to the accessibility analysis. An assessment has also been made on the impact on the viewshed but due to the methodology followed visual intrusion is more difficult to conclude. According to the results the visual intrusion level does not increase but even common sense tells you that this is unlikely to be the case. The funicular obviously represents a more solid structure compared to the existing chairlift and its pylons that will reduce the regions' sense of wilderness. An assessment of the results' visualisation is very subjective but from a personal point of view I feel that although they clearly illustrate the findings they could be more visually impressive. The incorporation of three dimensional terrain would place them in a better context.

Problems & Limitations Encountered

A major problem encountered was the availability of structural data. Whilst everybody spoken too in an attempt to acquire this information was helpful and could suggest other possible sources the exact figures and locations of the existing and proposed structures were difficult to get hold of acquire. Eventually Highland Regional Council were able to supply copies of the drawing plans from which the necessary information was interpreted from.

The computational memory required by Fritz and Carvers' model limited the accessibility analysis to a relatively small area. In order to allow a larger area to be considered at 50 meter resolution the use of a supercomputer is required until significant improvements are made in workstation processing power. The model itself also contains a number of limitations, most notably the ability to walk in only 8 directions. The selection of barrier and impedance features was also very subjective and decided upon from personal experience. A fixed scale needs to be developed and tested to increase the accuracy of this aspect of the model. The shortest path algorithm also contains a number of inherent constraints.

Possible Improvements

There are a number of possible improvements that could be made to both the visual and access analysis. In theory it is possible to develop a model that could qualify visual intrusion dependent upon the bulk of the visible object, as height is one dimension. Of course this would be very subjective as different people would consider an intrusion to occur at different locations. One way to approach this would be to use a VRML model to create the landscape and construct the funicular within it. Views could then be created from various viewpoints and assessed.

The model developed by Fritz and Carver is still an on going development and additional features are constantly being added. Perhaps the most important aspect of hill walking that is as yet not included is decent, but the other issues discussed in section 7.2 could also be included. Ideally the C language code would be converted into AML for easy of use.


Further Work

This analysis only considers two aspects of the impact that the funicular will create. There are many other areas that can be analysised using GIS, such as those listed below:

If would also be interesting to develop the Fritz and Carvers' model further to assess other methods of access, such as mountain biking.

Bibliography

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Last Updated 23-03-99