Assessing the Visual Quality of Rural and Urban-fringed Landscapes surrounding Livestock Farms

Abstract

This study concentrated on main concerns and preferences relating to the visual quality of rural and urban-fringed landscapes together with livestock farms and their surroundings, and assessed negative or positive effects of existing natural and cultural features on the landscape in visual context. The study area covered seven rural or urban-fringed districts of İzmir province, situated in the western end of Turkey. A panel of 30 viewers was asked to evaluate a total of 116 min of footage. This comprised viewing 58 min of video and a 58 min evaluation of 58 slides of 250 images. The selection represented a myriad of rural and urban-fringed landscapes and livestock farms with their surroundings across the province. The study clearly identified that rural landscapes were relatively rated with higher scores than urban edge landscapes. Natural features provided positive effects on the visual quality of landscapes whereas some cultural features sharply decreased. Rural landscapes in some districts achieved relatively the highest degree of visual quality but farms and their environs remained of poor quality. In contrast, the gap between landscapes and farms in some others which are completely under heavy pressure from densities of settlements, increasing urban and industrial sprawl besides poor visual quality and insufficient construction techniques of farms. However, modern and well-managed farms enhance visual appeal of landscapes as well. As a conclusion, livestock farms usually did not adapt or correspond well visually with landscapes. To compete with this challenge, land should be allocated provisionally for new livestock farms in rural landscapes without charging for environmental problems or visual intrusions, managed visual adjustment between existing farms and their environs, and surfaced detrimental effects of natural and cultural landscape features explicitly.