Visual impact assessment - Solar farm project Areas of Natural Beauty and Visibility Visual impact issues can be of particular concern for developments in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The Dorset AONB team is one example of a group that has produced guidelines [2] relating to largescale solar PV arrays in these areas. The visibility of a development from a given location is dependent on the terrain height between the observer and the solar array. Another contributing factor is the level of screening provided by obstructions. These can be objects like buildings and hedges for example.