How to Make this Illuminated Visibility Map

Here's how to make a map that appears to illuminate an area based on what can be seen from that vantage point. It uses the Geodesic Viewshed tool in ArcGIS Pro, which is part of Spatial Analyst or 3D analyst I think.
Here's the "Global Background" layer I use, which is just a big rectangle covering earth: esriis-my.shar...
Check out some other social channels where I share how-to's and updates on random map adventures:
adventuresinmap...
www.esri.com/a...
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[@danieltolozapimentel89]

Great job, you bring each map to life in an incredible way.

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

wow, thank you Daniel!

[@KSkuld]

Such an incredible artwork!!! So fabulous.

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

Thanks!

[@justinthompson7407]

This is phenomenal!

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

@@justinthompson7407 thanks!

[@matthewpoon5530]

can you use dsm instead of dem? would that include obstruction of trees and buildings?

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

even better!

[@louis1372]

Great result, John! I love your videos! It wasn't easy to follow your steps/clicks due to the screenshot narrative. Thanks for moving in the end 🤪!

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

thanks Louis! yeah, this format was different than usual because it was originally a presentation i'd done and still wanted to share; normally they won't be like this. you watched until the end??

[@louis1372]

Yeah, I always watch until the end. You did an excellent job at staying frozen👍. I was wondering if it was a picture🤔🤔🤔. That's why I was pleased when you finally moved.

[@skywalker271]

Thank you for uploading this, good man.

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@davidnovak3072]

Before videos starts, this map is amazing :D Now let's see the video! :D

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

that's big pressure!

[@jdsflick]

was there a brief moment in time when you considered a circular layout to mirror the concentric buffer rings? i was hollering "No John - go round!!!" at layout

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

Ah that’s a cool idea!

[@oikangi]

wow this is amazing!! thanks for sharing

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

Thanks!

[@williamhamilton5221]

Hi, I am a student at BYU-I and our teacher asked us to fallow along with what he called one of your advanced GIS videos. I am having trouble locating the link to the pickle you mentioned. Could you post the link in a comment or the description?

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

Oh cool I’m honored! Hmm I don’t recall what I would have meant by “pickle.”

[@williamhamilton5221]

@@JohnNelsonMaps I'm sorry it was, "the extent of the great smoky national park,". You had called it a, "pickle blob," in the video. Thank you so much for your time, by the way, it is much appreciated.

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

@@williamhamilton5221 oh, I see! You can find a National Park boundary in many places. If you are in ArcGIS Pro you can use the “add data” button then choose the “living atlas” tab and search for “National parks”. Or you can just Google for the park name and the word “shapefile”. That should give you lots of options.

[@williamhamilton5221]

@@JohnNelsonMaps Hey thank you so much, that really helped me out a lot. =)

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

@@williamhamilton5221 fantastic! i'd love to see what you come up with when you complete the map.

[@ColumbiaBasinJim]

Wondering why you stitched together your own dem for the extent rather than use the Living Atlas? Looks great!

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

i was under the impression the viewshed tool required a local DEM rather than a living atlas image service. but maybe that's not the case?

[@ColumbiaBasinJim]

@@JohnNelsonMaps Oh, I may not know what I'm talking about . . . very possible . . . what little I know about Living Atlas comes mostly from you anyway! But, I was just thinking that someone could export the terrain layer from Living Atlas with the extent clipped to a specified boundary then they wouldn't have to stitch smaller DEMs together. Even if that's true, I don't know if it's any easier; the work-flow may be about the same amount of effort? I was just wondering if there was something else I was missing. It could be that what I described wouldn't work??

[@mlsauron]

10:01 I usualy struggle with Raster to polygon tool. It requires reclassification which affect accuracy. Or there's something I don't get right. 21:15 That's more than a map. That's a pure art‼I'm always confused how do you think of such workflows?

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

thanks!

[@jakubsisak]

Great!

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

thanks Jakub!

[@benmissimer]

Dope

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

thanks Ben!

[@Bobbyfurna]

It feels illegal to watch these videos.

[@JohnNelsonMaps]

maybe it is!