decision-making in urban landscape planning using analytic network process (case study: the city of taft)

extended abstract 1. introduction city is a living creature formed through the interaction of different forces in unique substantiality. one of the main aspects of each city is its landscape; urban landscape is the experience of people as the members of society. landscape is an objective and subjective phenomenon that is the part of peoples’ nature in a city. in fact, the process of landscape planning is the art of visual and structural integrating into buildings, streets, and places, which build the urban environment. visual landscape analyses include studies that determine the quality of a place and the interaction between its visual elements on a perceptual basis. they constitute an essential means for providing the orientation data for physical planning and designing through the implementation and maintenance processes. by approaching the physical environment through such studies, it is possible to evaluate the visual ambience efficiently, to identify the existing and potential problems, and to gain help in finding solutions. such an analysis can be regarded as the process of identifying classes of visual quality based on an inventory of the visual landscape, including the number of people who see it, the level of any concerns they may have and the consideration of its various values. 2. theoretical framework ‘landscape’ is one of the few concepts with only positive connotations. even when we talk about ‘waste landscapes’, ‘derelict landscapes’ or even ‘dystopian landscapes’, they have this aspect of artistic scenery that takes us away from smell, cold, hunger, and privation to a sheer visual and aesthetic level of contemplation. ‘landscape’ in this sense is a reductive, horizontal concept, extracting the visual prop erties and the geometrical relationships as ‘reality’. on the other hand, ‘landscape’ is also one of the most inclusive concepts used to point out, label and describe our surroundings. derived from intentions to communicate on the experienced ‘life world’, to signify a physical context which is more or less defined by borders of some kind, its cohesive abilities have made it of excellent use as metaphor, e.g. ‘a landscape of ideas’ or ‘the business landscape of the 90s’. in the field of urban planning, however, it is more appro priate to understand the concept of landscape, not as a metaphor, but as a representation in linguistic as well as visualized meanings. the point in using ‘landscape’ to represent an entirety is precisely to be able to move back and forth between what is expressed as the landscape at the level of representations and what is experienced as the landscape at the level of what is represented. landscape planners are concerned with the 'health' of the landscape, just as doctors are concerned with bodily health. this analogy can be taken further. medical doctors both advise on the health of individuals and matters of public health. when individuals take actions injurious to their own health, this is regarded as a private matter. but if they take actions injurious to public health, these actions are properly regulated by law. the collective landscape is a public good which should be protected and enhanced by legislation and public administration. if, for example, mineral extraction has a damaging impact on the landscape, this is a proper field for intervention. negative impacts on the landscape could include visual impacts, ecological impacts, hydrological impacts and recreational impacts. as well as protecting the existing public goods, societies are responsible for the creation of new public goods. this can be done by positive landscape planning. there are, for example, many former mineral workings (e.g. the norfolk broads) which have become important public goods. medical doctors are trained in anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and so forth before becoming practitioners. landscape doctors are trained in geomorphology, hydrology, ecology, and so forth before becoming practitioners in design and planning. 3. methodology the present research aims at improving and promoting visual and conceptual urban landscapes in the city of taft by prioritizing the effective elements in landscape. to do so, this research used descriptive and analytical method, which required information from written sources of field research such as going directly to organizations and using interviews. for data analysis, analytic network process (anp) was used. public spaces, visual preferences, and physical structures are three clusters in which for each cluster three nodes were determined. in determining the relationship between the nodes and the priority of each one, the compiled proportional interviews to anp model along with the obtained data were analyzed through the software. results show that the watercourse of the river is given top priority among the public spaces. 4. discussion & conclusion among three nodes related to the physical structure, urban furniture is given top priority. among three nodes related to the visual priorities, aleman's and statues are given top priority, whereas with a little difference electroluminescent is our priority in urban landscape planning in the city of taft. finally, recommendations are made for improving each of the spaces of the study.