Scenery evaluation as a tool for the determination of visual pollution in coastal environments: The Rabigh coastline, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a study case.

Visual pollution is the visible deterioration and negative aesthetic quality of the landscape. Erosion, marine wrack, litter, sewage, and beach driving are affecting the coastal scenery and are generating a visual pollution problem on the Rabigh coastal area, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This work provides the scenic evaluation of 31 coastal sites using the Coastal Scenery Evaluation System (CSES) to determine the current state of this situation and give management inputs. The CSES assesses values from a checklist of 18 physical and 8 human parameters and allows the calculation of a scenic evaluation index (D Value), which classifies coastal sites into five classes: Class I, usually natural areas of top scenic characteristics, to Class V, poor scenic natural areas with a higher impact of human interventions. Along the study area, three sites (9.7 %) appeared in Class II; five (16.1 %) in Class III; 15 (48.4 %) in Class IV, and eight sites (25.8 %) in Class V. Class I sites were not found in the study area. Assessment presented in this work provides a complete overview of the Rabigh coastal scenery and serves as a baseline for implementing management strategies to cope the visual pollution problem.

Solving visual pollution with deep learning: A new nexus in environmental management.

Visual pollution is a relatively new concern amidst the existing plethora of mainstream environmental pollution, recommending the necessity for research to conceptualize, formalize, quantify and assess it from different dimensions. The purpose of this study is to create a new field of automated visual pollutant classification, harnessing the technological prowess of the 21st century for applications in environmental management. From the wide range of visual pollutants, four categories have been considered viz. (i) billboards and signage, (ii) telephone and communication wires, (iii) network and communication towers and (iv) street litter. The deep learning model used in this study simulates the human learning experience in the context of image recognition for visual pollutant classification by training and testing a convolutional neural network with several layers of artificial neurons. Data augmentation using image processing techniques and a train-test split ratio of 80:20 have been used. Training accuracy of 95% and validation accuracy of 85% have been achieved by the deep learning model. The results indicate that the upper limit of accuracy i.e. the asymptote, depends on the dataset size for this type of task. This study has several applications in environmental management. For example, the deployment of the trained model for processing of video/live footage from smartphone applications, closed-circuit television and drones/unmanned aerial vehicles can be applied for both the removal and management of visual pollutants in the natural and built environment. Furthermore, generating the 'visual pollution score/index' of urban regions such as towns and cities will create a new 'metric/indicator' in the field of urban environmental management.

Diagnóstico ambiental de la percepción de la contaminacion visual por parte de la población universitaria de la facultad de ingeniería civil y de la facultad de ciencias naturales, exactas y de la educación de la universidad del cauca / Environmental diagnosis of visual pollution perception by university population from the civil engineering and natural, exact and education sciences faculties at universidad del cauca

En dos facultades de la Universidad del Cauca, fue realizado un diagnóstico ambiental sobre la percepción y el grado de contaminación visual que se tienen dentro de ellas, para lo anterior se utilizaron encuestas de opinión universitaria y pública para el conocimiento de diversos factores que generan, alteran y ofrecen soluciones al ambiente con la mencionada problemática. Los resultados porcentuales con la ayuda del programa estadístico SPSS demostraron como en su mayoría la población universitaria conoce sobre la importancia del impacto generado con un 84% y un 87% de las molestias, además que el 36,4% de la población encuestada establece que la educación es la solución para el problema. El estudio también establece que son los estudiantes universitarios los que están dispuestos para buscar soluciones y la mitigación de la contaminación visual a través de nuevos espacios.

An environmental assessment of the perception and the degree of visual pollution in the campus, was conducted in two faculties of Universidad del Cauca. For this purpose, university and public opinion surveys to know different factors that generate, alter and offer solutions to the environment with the aforementioned problems were conducted. The percentage results using the SPSS statistical program showed how most of the university population knows about the importance of the impact generated with an 84% and an 87% of the discomfort, plus 36.4 % of the population surveyed states that education is the solution to the problem. The study also establishes that it is the university students who are willing to seek solutions and mitigation of visual pollution through new spaces.

Environmental Harmony and Evaluation of Advertisement Billboards with Digital Photogrammetry Technique and GIS Capabilities: A Case Study in the City of Ankara.

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have been gaining a growing interest in Turkey. Many local governments and public agencies have been struggling to set up such systems to serve the needs and meet public requirements. Urban life shelters the advertisement reality which is presented at various places, on vehicles, shops etc. in daily life. It can be said that advertisement is a part of daily life in urban area, especially in city centers. In addition, one of the main sources of revenue for municipalities comes from advertising and notices. The advertising sector provides a great level of income today. Therefore advertising is individually very important for local governments and urban management. Although it is valuable for local governments, it is also very important for urban management to place these advertisement signs and billboards in an orderly fashion which is pleasing to the eye. Another point related to this subject is the systematic control mechanism which is necessary for collecting taxes regularly and updating. In this paper, first practical meaning of notice and advertisement subject, problem definition and objectives are described and then legal support and daily practice are revised. Current practice and problems are mentioned. Possibilities of measuring and obtaining necessary information by using digital images and transferring them to spatial databases are studied. By this study, a modern approach was developed for urban management and municipalities by using information technology which is an alternative to current application. Criteria which provide environmental harmony such as urban beauty, colour, compatibility and safety were also evaluated. It was finally concluded that measuring commercial signs and keeping environmental harmony under control for urban beauty can be provided by Digital Photogrammetry (DP) technique and GIS capabilities which were studied with pilot applications in the city center of Ankara.