Abstract

In Turkey, landscape planning has no legal status within the physical planning processes. Landscape planning approaches were used in some environment plans, long-term national park development plans, and sectoral plans like Wetland Management plans. Works on the assessment of visual landscape quality (VLQ) are required for both landscape planning and the determination of landscape quality following the European Landscape Convention. In this study , maps of visual landscape quality were produced at sub-regional scale by using visual resource management model by using geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) data. Within the scope of preparation of the environment plan at a scale of 1/100000 in the area of study, some suggestions were put forward on strengthening the protection status of the areas with very high visual landscape quality by using visual landscape quality classes, and making some uses available for the areas with low visual landscape quality. In conclusion, the importance of landscape planning studies for natural resource management and physical planning was emphasized.

Key words: Landscape assessment, land use, visual quality, Turkey, environmental plans.