Mapping availability of sea view for potential building development areas

Scenic attraction can be regarded as one of the most important factors for recreation- and/or tourism-oriented landscape planning and management processes. Sea view is generally one of the most predominant scenery components of coastal landscapes. Therefore, presence and degree of its availability contribute to scenic attraction of residential development sites. This attribute of the environment can be quantified by GIS-based visibility analyses that rely on multiple viewshed calculations, during which observation and/or target locations are taken as variables. The main aim of this paper is to analyze availability of sea view for currently undeveloped (i.e., non-built-up) areas in an urbanized coast in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. Four study sites (sites 1-4) of varying geomorphological and built-up features, located approximately 40 km south of the city of Mersin, were taken into consideration. Multiple viewshed analyses were performed using a high-resolution terrain model and 541, 533, 540, and 532 observation points for the sites, 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Impact of topography and built-up features on sea visibility was discussed in the light of visibility information classified as percentage visibility of the sea surface available from each of the sites.