Chapter Visibility analysis in wetland protection processes

Overview & Synopsis

The environmental and ecosystem values of wetland are maintained through standardized methods, monitoring ecological ed ecosystems aspects like quality of water bodies, the presence or abundance of species and so on. However, protection initiatives sometimes prove to be insufficient in effectively reducing anthropogenic pressures like intensive agricultural areas, infrastructure, urban settlements and industrial sites. Their presence affects effectively and from a perceptive point of view the landscape of the wetlands. In order to reduce visibility fragmentations of wetlands landscapes, the introduction of the perception analysis in wetland conservation processes could guarantee the integral protection of unique value of wetlands landscape. The visibility analysis method is based on the visual perception: intervisibility maps are created using GIS tools the proposed methodology has been applied to the case study of the southeastern Sicilian wetlands, whose landscape value is highly threatened by human actions.