Cultural Ecosystem Services of Ilam Urban Watershed:Modeling Aesthetic Value

Cultural ecosystem services, as one of the components of ecosystem services, are intangible human benefits from ecosystems that play a fundamental role in promoting human well-being. Rapid changes in land use with damage to ecological assets in the Ilam urban watershed have reduced the capacity of ecosystem services, including aesthetic quality. Therefore, the evaluation of the supply of aesthetic ecosystem service, which shows the biological diversity in urban areas and favorable conditions for life, is considered essential for inclusion in the improvement plans of Ilam city in line with appropriate management measures. In this vein, in the current research, an integrated approach to prepare an aesthetic map with the aim of showing the spatial distribution of the supply of aesthetic services in the Ilam urban watershed has been presented, the results of which can greatly influence planning and managerial decisions regarding future development towards urban sustainability by preserving natural ecosystems.

Spatial distribution of providing aesthetic ecosystem services in Ilam urban watershed using 12 visual and ecological criteria including: slope, Elevation, geomorphology, land use, habitat characteristics, visibility of various areas, visibility of roads, visibility of residential areas, visibility of the river, visibility of the park, type and density of vegetation were investigated. To prepare visibility layers, Viewshed function was used in TerrSet Idrisi software. Then, the input layers were integrated using fuzzy membership functions and using the weighted linear combination method in the ArcGIS 10.8 system. Among the multi-criteria decision-making methods, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was used to prioritize the criteria.

Based on the results of the hierarchical analysis process and according to the results of the experts Among the input criteria, visibility of the river, type of vegetation and visibility of diverse areas were assigned the most weight with values of 0.14, 0.127 and 0.116 respectively. On the other hand, the least importance and weight was observed in the measure of road visibility. Based on the final map of aesthetic quality, the best quality of this service is in the parts of the north, east, southeast and west of the Ilam urban watershed, where these places have the best visibility of the river, visibility of various areas, high to medium altitude and with dominant forest cover.

The results of this study showed, that areas with forest cover and areas with human uses have the highest and lowest capacity of this service in the study area, respectively, which denotes the importance of natural green uses compared to artificial uses and human-made is in providing aesthetic service. These results indicate that the capacity of the watershed ecosystem of Ilam city in providing aesthetic services varies in different places and is influenced by various factors, especially topographic changes and land use patterns. That is to say, prevent land use change is an important factor for maintaining ecosystem services. Because the land use Changes pattern affects the capacity of the ecosystem to produce goods and services. The results of this research also, by presenting the spatial distribution model of aesthetic service potential can be useful for decision makers, managers and urban planners in order to monitor and protect aesthetic values and it is important and useful to adopt urban landscape management strategies and plans in the landscape of the studied area.