An Evaluation Model Of Landforms Visual Value

The physical relief is a variable of utmost significance in the course of the analysis, evaluation, design and management of the visual environment. In this sense, there are cases where it would be desirable to isolate the relief from the other elements making up the visual environment and to investigate its visual value separately. Such cases include the technical works that cause major and permanent alterations to the relief, as well as the works, of which the spatial arrangement depends on the morphology of the ground. Slopes, distances, hypsometric difference values, viewsheds are elements of the relief that affect the visual value of a landscape, but also the ability of a particular landscape to accept and absorb new activities. This paper describes an evaluation and prediction model of the visual value of the landforms. A questionnaire survey takes place in order to investigate the public preference, using a sample of 221 persons in the broader area of Athens. The means used to demonstrate the various forms of reliefs are 32 perspective digital relief images. Following this and in order to investigate the elements of the relief that affect its visual value, 20 quantitative indices were developed and examined so as to select the best ones. Linear prediction models of the visual value were investigated from the previous elements, through a regression process. The applications of the proposed model in physical environment planning are many, such as the prediction of visual impact by arranging works that alter the relief of a region, as it happens in mining, metallurgical and waste disposal sites.