Visual absorption capacity assessment of tourism landscapes considering effects of development projects (Case study: Manjil City)

Subject Areas : landuse

Sepida Darabi ¹ , , Masoud Monavari ² , سیدعلی جوزی ³ , Razieh Rahimi ⁴ , Alireza Vafaeinejad ⁵

1 - Ph.D. student, Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
2 - Full Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. *(Corresponding Author)
3 - Full Professor, Department of Environment, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
4 - Assistant Professor, Department of Environment, West Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
5 - Associate Professor, Faculty of Civil, Water and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

Received: 2023-01-29 Accepted : 2023-12-06 Published : 2024-06-21

Keywords: Visual absorption capacity (VAC), Landscape sensitivity, Development projects, Wind farm.,

Abstract :

Background and Objective: The visual absorption capacity (VAC) of a landscape expresses its ability to absorb the effects of development projects without losing its visual quality and integrity. When development plans are implemented in local landscapes studying the visual absorption capacity in tourism landscapes can be very beneficial to achieve sustainable planning and management. Manjil City is located in the vicinity of Sefidrud Dam’s lake and has high tourism potential, and its views have significant visual value, however, the sites of wind turbines which were built in this area have had significant effects on the local landscape. This study aimed to evaluate the amount of absorption of the wind turbines’ impact by the existing local landscape and also to identify the zones with lower visual sensitivity.

Material and Methodology: The indicators were categorized into geomorphology, land cover, and visibility. Each of the layers’ weight was determined using the analytic network process (ANP) and then layers has been overlaid to calculate the visual absorption capacity map of the study area.

Findings: In the zone of the Rudbar site, the visual absorption of the landscape is high, and therefore a high percentage of the visual effects have been absorbed by the landscape, consequently it has a less negative impact on the key views.

Discussion and Conclusion: The application of the viewing frequency criterion as one of the factors in assessing the visual absorption capacity of a landscape can increase the accuracy of the results.

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