First Field Visit

The first visit to the area took place on February 14. The day was cold, with temperatures close to 0 degrees, but the sun was out, which made for a beautiful day. A 360-degree camera and a 2.5 m tall selfie stick were used to make equirectangular pictures that can be viewed in specialised software, with the goal of examining the area in detail from behind a desk. In total, 122 photos were taken, with their locations recorded using GPS. The pictures were taken from publicly accessible paths. While some fields had no barriers to entry, most fields were inaccessible because they were partially flooded.

For the identification of landscape elements, a viewing distance of 500 m is considered the limit of human vision (Van der Ham & Idding, 1971). A 150 m viewing range from each photo location was defined as the distance beyond which characteristic landscape elements could no longer be detected from the 360-degree photos. This creates a viewshed that covers most of the study area, although some gaps remain.

The first visit also confirmed that most areas would become accessible in spring once the water receded, and that the boundaries of the study area could be clearly distinguished on the terrain. This confirmed the outline of the study area.