A method for optimizing camera layout for areas requiring surveillance comprises constructing a three-dimensional model of a scene subject to surveillance and related scene variables, configuring a computation range, constructing a plurality of simulation scenes using the three-dimensional model and the scene variables and recording the framing of pixels in the plurality of simulation scenes by a plurality of cameras according to the computation range, and further calculating the number of pixels required for visibility of an object to be recognized from the recorded framing of pixels. A camera set is selected from the plurality of cameras according to a convergence requirement, and a computation as to camera optimization layout is performed with the camera set to obtain one or more layout schemes.