Viewshed analysis in Python using gdal ViewshedGenerate()

Question

I have data from a digital elevation model and would like to perform a viewshed analysis using gdal.viewshedGenerate() in Python. I have transformed my data into a .tif file and performed georeferencing using rasterio. However, when I try to generate the viewshed I receive a TypeError: not a sequence.

I have already considered the advices from this question > An example for Viewshed analysis in Python. I was wondering if the problem might still be the data type of the mode but could not find another solution yet. Does anyone know what might be the problem?

Here is my code:

from osgeo import gdal 
band=gdal.Open("new.tif").GetRasterBand(1)
gdal.ViewshedGenerate(
 srcBand = band,
 driverName = 'GTiff',
 targetRasterName = 'new.tif',
 creationOptions = None,
 observerX = 306900.0,
 observerY = 5654500.0,
 observerHeight = 2.0,
 targetHeight = 80.0,
 visibleVal = 255.0,
 invisibleVal = 0.0,
 outOfRangeVal = 0.0,
 noDataVal = 0.0,
 dfCurvCoeff = 1.0,
 mode = 1,
 maxDistance = 500.0) 

And the Error I receive:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TypeError Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[17], line 1
----> 1 gdal.ViewshedGenerate(
 2 srcBand = band,
 3 driverName = 'GTiff',
 4 targetRasterName = 'new.tif',
 5 creationOptions = None,
 6 observerX = 306900.0,
 7 observerY = 5654500.0,
 8 observerHeight = 2.0,
 9 targetHeight = 80.0,
 10 visibleVal = 255.0,
 11 invisibleVal = 0.0,
 12 outOfRangeVal = 0.0,
 13 noDataVal = 0.0,
 14 dfCurvCoeff = 1.0,
 15 mode = 1,
 16 maxDistance = 500.0)
File ~\Anaconda3\envs\pygmt\Lib\site-packages\osgeo\gdal.py:4568, in ViewshedGenerate(*args, **kwargs)
 4566 def ViewshedGenerate(*args, **kwargs) -> "GDALDatasetShadow *":
 4567 r"""ViewshedGenerate(Band srcBand, char const * driverName, char const * targetRasterName, char ** creationOptions, double observerX, double observerY, double observerHeight, double targetHeight, double visibleVal, double invisibleVal, double outOfRangeVal, double noDataVal, double dfCurvCoeff, GDALViewshedMode mode, double maxDistance, GDALProgressFunc callback=0, void * callback_data=None, GDALViewshedOutputType heightMode=GVOT_NORMAL, char ** options=None) -> Dataset"""
-> 4568 return _gdal.ViewshedGenerate(*args, **kwargs)
TypeError: not a sequence

• user30184: The "not a sequence" error comes from the creationOptions. Try with a sequence creationOptions = ['None'],.
• user30184: I wrote an answer to gis.stackexchange.com/questions/434417/… with Python code that works for me. Please have a look.
• marta: i have problems aswell with the arguments. creationOptions=None is not allowed and mode = 1 neither. has anybody made it to work?

Answer 1

TypeError: not a sequence is due to creationOptions not being a sequence.

If you don't want to set any creation options then use: creationOptions=[]. This works on my system with GDAL 3.7.1.

Note that this is a breaking change as of GDAL 3.7.X where GDAL 3.6.X accepts creationOptions=None.