Abstract
The purpose of this study is to analyze the MAUP's effect in visibility analysis using GIS. MAUP normally occurs in the process in terrain spatial analysis including visibility analysis. There are two different types of grid data(based on digital map and Digital Terrain Elevation Data) and 10 different types of areal units are made for modeling, such as $5m{\times}5m,\;10m{\times}10m,\;15m{\times}15m,\;20m{\times}20m,\;25m{\times}25m,\;30m{\times}30m,\;35m{\times}35m,\;40m{\times}40m,\;45m{\times}45m,\;50m{\times}50$. By analyzing the result, it was possible to observe varying viewshed areas according to different grid cell sizes and the viewshed area did not varied linearly as expected. From a general point of view, smaller unit data map out the real world in more detail, but the results of modeling do not always reach a good conclusion when data are used in modeling for terrain analysis because of the MAUP' effect. The grid cell sizes of 30m or less seems to be adequate for visibility analysis, including terrain analysis considering vegetation heights.