Identifying the Components Affecting Visual Perception of the Spaces of Mountain Resorts (Case Study: Kolakchal Axis)

This study was an attempt to examine the degree of satisfaction and desire of people to attend mountain resorts in relationship to different aspects of visual perceptions of the mountain road landscape. To this purpose, Kolakchal axis were selected as the research site because of its high level of interactions and various activities. The analytical-descriptive research method has been used in this research. The components affecting the visual perceptions of mountainous resorts were analyzed from four perspectives: cognitive, emotional, interpretive, and evaluative. The physical and structural features of the landscape, strengths and weakness of the region were analyzed carefully through the route navigation. The collected data were aggregated with other environmental data. Based on the mentioned factors, the degree of people’s satisfaction with each sequence was evaluated by using questionnaires. The results show that improving the quantity and quality of mountain recreational spaces will encourage people to attend there more, also promotes the mental and physical health of the community. Tactics for improving the research site include: using the natural slope, leaving some parts of the site intact, reducing wind speed by mass planting, arraying trees in a linear way along an axis to improve its legibility, and aligning the planting hierarchy with the plants on the site. In study area, two sequences (2 and 8) which have been received top marks in terms of visual perception quality and satisfaction, had higher capacity to become multi-use and multi user resorts for all ages. From the cognitive aspect, the degree of color diversity and space enclosure were significantly related to the improvement of the quality of the environment and people’s satisfaction However, it had little effect on the quality of spatial perceptions. From the emotional aspect, spatial diversity, vegetation density, and space cleanliness played the greatest role in the perceptions of the mountain environment. From the interpretive aspect, the legibility of the space had a positive correlation with the quality of the environment and satisfaction. From the evaluative perspective, the presence of people was directly related to the quality of the cognitive, emotional, and interpretive aspects. However, this relationship with emotional and interpretive components was much stronger than the cognitive aspect.