Abstract
In recent years, there has been big attention to the problems that urban settings are facing, they are losing their aesthetics and identity due to many urban issues, and neglected aspects, such as the visual pollution (Wakil et al, 2019). With the increasing focus on different aspects of quality of life and wellbeing, the concept of visual pollution has been gradually gaining interest from researchers and policy makers. However, the complexity and subjectivity affecting the evaluation visual pollution in urban settings still a challenge since it is difficult to quantify the visual pollution impact, because its related to the observer taste and personal point of view. Due to the rapid growth and urbanism in the state of Qatar, aesthetics and visual dimension are ignored, significant urban centers or tourist attraction areas are suffering from visual pollution, such as: Al Mirqab/ Slata neighborhood (Nafi, 2017). The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of visual pollution in Al Mirqab/ Slata neighborhood since it has many iconic buildings that attract tourists and visitors such as: The National Museum of Qatar. Comprehensive understanding of visual pollution aspects and assessment methods was addressed from the literature review based on overview on studies of visual pollution in urban settings, visual pollution assessment methods, and visual pollution indicators. The methodology adopts qualitative approach depending on site survey, perceptual approach based on observational maps, beside quantitative approach relying on questionnaire, statistics, and interviews with professionals from local planning authorities. The initial findings reflect that Al Mirqab/ Slata neighborhood is suffering from the in-homogeneous buildings that affect the visual comfort and neighborhood aesthetic image. The study recommends innovative solutions that could be used in mitigating visual pollution in Al Mirqab/ Slata neighborhood and urban settings. The paper concludes that the best way of controlling visual pollution is to develop design principles that urban settings could evaluated positively by different users.
