Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and Natural Resources 2022 number 2

A method of aesthetic assessment of coastal landscapes surrounded by mountains at the regional level is suggested. Assessment and mapping of aesthetic resources of the territory are based on an understanding that viewing points and perceived landscape sceneries form an aesthetic system based on the geographical location. An aesthetic assessment was made by using geo-referenced landscape photographs taken during field investigations, and from the Panoramio web service database for 11 complex indicators characterizing the perception conditions of sceneries as well as their structure. The analysis of the landscape diversity of open and closed landscape scenes was carried out in a differentiated manner. The landscape diversity of open and semi-open scenes is determined by a combination of the ruggedness of relief and contrast of vegetation cover, while the differentiation of closed forest landscape scenes with a near perspective is based on the characteristics of the elements and components of the enclosing natural landscape (composition and density of the forest stand, the presence, abundance and height of the shrub layer, and the height and variety of ground cover). The assessment of complex indicators was carried out by using a three-dimensional model of the study area in Google Earth Pro, based on thematic layers imported from the Quantum GIS project (satellite images, digital elevation model SRTM, landscape typological and forest inventory maps, database of landscape photographs, etc.) with due regard for the obscuring role of vegetation cover. The contours of the landscape typological map at the level of groups of facies at a scale of 1:500 000 are used as mapping units. The score is assigned to the area from which the landscape is observed.