2nd International Conference on Civil Infrastructure and Construction (CIC 2023)

5-8 February, 2023 Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

An Analytical Review of Attempts to Mitigate Visual Pollution

in Urban Settings
Diala Al Midani
Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
[email protected]
Fodil Fadli
Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
[email protected]

Abstract
Visual pollution is the main issue rising in urban settings these days. The residents of the built
environment or the surrounding communities are negatively impacted by this sort of pollution. Visual
pollution reduces quality of life and has an impact on the community’s overall wellbeing. Urban planning
developments in Qatar are progressively recognizing the issue of visual pollution in urban settings.
Therefore, there are various efforts and actions that were adopted to minimize such an issue. This paper’s
primary aim is to formulate a set of suggestions to help in mitigating visual pollution impact. The aim will
be achieved by focusing on producing an analytical review of methods to mitigate visual pollution impact
in many countries generally and in the state of Qatar mainly, besides highlighting the country’s laws,
regulations, and act towards visual pollution. The methodology used was qualitative approach to review
adopted methods and used solutions in mitigating visual pollution impact. The findings proposed a set of
recommendations to help in reducing visual pollution impact and enhancing the attempts of mitigating
visual pollution in urban settings. The paper concludes many practices used previously in various
countries and mainly in the state of Qatar and identifies the most appropriate methods to control visual
pollution and enhance the attempts of reducing its impact in urban settings.

Keywords: Visual pollution; Urban settings; Qualitative approach; The State of Qatar

1 Introduction
Humans have attempted to alter their environments repeatedly throughout history in an effort to fulfil
their goals. Many concerns were raised because of changes in the environment and by the needs of
the expanding population and industrial growth. Land, water, air, and noise pollution are the first
things that come to mind when discussing environmental issues. However, visual pollution is not as
significant as other sorts of pollution are; visual pollution is a type of pollution that has recently
gained attention since it affects individuals psychologically and spiritually.
In an urban setting, it is difficult to find beauty in a single building; rather, beauty or visual chaos can
be seen in relation to the whole urban context. Investigating visual pollution focuses on the unity as
well as the disparities in urban design of the urban settings, such as architectural principles of the
urban fabric, signage and advertisements, buildings’ design, structural materials, and various existing
physical objects, in order to investigate the visual quality and visual distortion in urban settings and
the built environment.
According to Bodur and Kucur (1994), visual pollution is the act of bringing undesirable changes in

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the environment that disrupt healthy people’s visual acuity. Visual pollution can alternatively be
characterized as the entirety of the erratic formations that are typically present in both natural and
built settings, which are typically observed in an indirect manner and make a bad impression on
people’s thoughts (Oner & Konakli, 2009).
Oner & Konakli (2009) highlighted some of the visual pollution causes in cities, including poor
judgement, legal shortcomings, a lack of oversight, usage that is incompatible with its intended
purposes, lacking in culture and knowledge as well as insensitivity on the part of local government
(Oner & Konakli, 2009). Both the city as a whole and the specifics, such as specific areas of buildings
or urban spaces, reflect visual pollution.
Visual pollution is caused by environments that are monotonous, congested, lack greenery and
distinctive character, as well as abandoned buildings with an unbalanced number of levels and poorly
designed transportation networks. In addition, enormous billboards at the city’s entrances and exits,
garbage bins, direction signs, signboards, utility lines, cell phone towers, transformer structures, and air
conditioning units affixed to building exteriors, and satellite dishes, all contribute to visual pollution.
Studies from both developed and developing nations have attempted to investigate the causes of the
visual pollution problem, but all of these efforts have been limited by the complexity, subjectivity,
researcher preferences, statistical measurement of the degree of visual pollution, and the visual
pollution objects (Bankole, 2013; Nasar & Hong, 1999).
This paper’s primary goal is to create a set of recommendations and principles to minimize the effect
of visual pollution impact in urban settings. The goal will be accomplished through an analytical
analysis review of internationally and locally used strategies for reducing the effects of visual
pollution affect in urban settings by emphasising international and local laws, rules, and actions on
mitigating visual pollution impact.
2 Methodology
The methodology in this study depends on qualitative approach to collect data about attempts and
methods for mitigating visual pollution impact in urban settings through an analytical review of
literature and relevant research papers. Firstly, it addresses the international attempts from different
countries for reducing the impact of visual pollution based on reviewing their relevant laws,
regulations, methods, and acts. Consequently, this study highlights local attempts for mitigating
visual pollution impact in urban settings in the state of Qatar by reviewing governmental laws,
authorities’ actions and adopted solutions. The analytical review will be presented in detail as follows.
3 Analysis
3.1 International Attempts for Mitigating Visual Pollution
Since the city of Sao Paulo assigned the Clean City Law in September 2006, prohibiting the display
of any outdoor advertising, such as billboards, transit, and that especially in front of shops. The city
made a radical action in 2007 to remove all outdoor commercial signs.
The term “visual pollution” has gained popularity around the world, and scholars are studying it in
relation to the excessive commercialization of public areas and urban settings (Baker, 2007; Koeck
& Warnaby, 2014).
In the United States, they started to reduce the visual pollution since 1956 through the Highway
Beautification Act, which restricts billboard placement on highways and roads (Nagle, 2009),

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especially with regards to retail shops located near a highway that may have huge billboards, which
creates visual problems and distractions. After the Beautification Act, another way for advertisers is
gradually preventing the problem of visual pollution. For instance, signboards that direct drivers
without deforming the urban settings are increasingly used and considered as the first step to mitigate
visual pollution on highways in the United States (Maguire et al., 1997).
Moreover, there were many initiatives to make the public more aware of urban settings appearance and
visual pollution, therefore, the Dunn Foundation organization was developed to design educational
programs for students from grade 3 to grade 12. These programs highlight the impacts of visual
pollution, and create awareness among students on how to enhance the appearance of their communities
and enhance the visual environment (The Dunn Foundation, 2012). Another non-profit organization
called Scenic America is seeking the reduction of visual mess and ensure scenic conservation.
One of their movements towards preventing the visual pollution was hiding the communication
towers with artificial trees (Scenic America, 2013).

Fig. 1: Artificial tree to hide a communication tower.

3.2 Local Attempts for Mitigating Visual Pollution

In the State of Qatar, billboards were controlled since 1980 by a governmental law No (4). In 2012,
Qatar set out a new Law No. (1) with additional requirements to control the advertisements/boards
placement (Salt & Earley, 2012).
In order to display an advertisement board in Qatar, an approval from the municipality must be
obtained. The applicant must submit the license application accompanied by a sketch of the
advertisement content details. There are many requirements the advertisement must follow prior to
the approval of the advertisement license, such as; a) the advertisement design must not be similar to
directional sings, in terms of colour, size, or form, to avoid the distraction, b) the placement of
advertisement must not harm the public facilities aesthetics or obstruct the pedestrians, c) if the
advertisement is installed on a building it must not hinder the ventilation outlets or block the visibility.
In addition, the advertisement owner is responsible for maintaining the sign, if he didn’t respond to
the Municipality notification within seven days, the advertisement sign may be removed.
Moreover, the Advertising Law prevents placing an advertisement on historic buildings, religious
sites, traffic signals and trees or plant containers (Law No. 1, Article 11).

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In addition, Ashghal which is the Public Works Authority of Qatar, has launched the directional sign
development strategy, that seeks to standardize and control the implementation of directional signs
on roads and highways to make them easy to be read and reduce the confusion to drivers. The
standardization will create an aesthetic characteristic and harmony on the roads in Qatar. Also, in
some areas, where it’s hard to place directional signs, some destinations are written on the asphalt
road which reduce the signboards’ visual impacts.
Regarding the communication towers and cellular mobile base station location, Qatar has assigned
some requirements and regulations to control the visual impact of installed towers. The height and
the appearance of the towers must meet the beautification principles of the Ministry of Municipality
and Urban Planning. The installed communication towers must be designed, painted, and hidden with
the respect to local pattern of streets, city skyline, building traditions, to reduce the contrast among
these towers and the surroundings (Communication Regulatory Authority, 2014).
Moreover, Qatar attempts to minimize the visual pollution caused by various elements, in parallel to
that the General Cleanliness Department, on behalf of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment
(MME), has cleared the ports of Al Wakrah and Al Khor from abandoned motorboats and dhows that
had become a problem. The Assistant Undersecretary for General Services Affairs at the Ministry of
Municipality and Environment Safar al Shafi stated that abandoned boats “occupy a large space and
produce visual pollution.” He further added that in order to prevent removal and legal action, boat
owners must follow the rules and maintain their boats.

Fig. 2: The abandoned dhows removal campaign by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Qatar

Fig. 3: The abandoned vehicles removal campaign by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Qatar

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Since Qatar is witnessing rapid development and many construction projects, a systematic scheme to
reduce the visual harm caused by construction work was needed. The Gulf Organization for Research
and Development (GORD) developed GSAS (Global Sustainability Assessment System) to improve
the overall quality of the construction projects (Al Midani & Fadli, 2020).
GSAS evaluates the aspects of the construction processes based on many categories such as the
outdoor environment. The objective of assessing this category is to minimize the visual impacts
during the construction phases. Negative visual impacts during the construction process could be
formed by many factors, such as cranes, machines, trucks, site fencing, landscape alteration, etc.
GSAS proposed many mitigation measures to reduce the visual pollution resulting from any
construction project. These measures must ensure the following: a) the fence material must respect
the surrounding land use and act as a visual barrier, b) the piles must be covered with netting to
minimize their visual impacts, c) any dirt or mud which has been spread onto the public streets by the
construction vehicles must be cleaned and removed, d) reduce ground and vegetation disturbance that
cause negative visual impacts in terms of contrast of texture, form, and colour, e) in order to give the
suggested trees a chance to grow while construction work is being done, plant temporary tree
nurseries earlier if it’s possible, to mitigate visual pollution (GSAS Construction Management:
Guidelines & Assessment, 2017).
4 Findings
Many cities thrive to have a beautiful urban image with well-known landmarks, advertisements, and
other stimuli. However, many have accumulated so much that it has adversely changed the
surrounding environment. Several cities make a concerted effort to precisely balance their aesthetics,
although this effort often fails. A neighbourhood’s atmosphere can be significantly disrupted by
having too many structures and attractions.
The majority of cities and smaller towns have an excessive number of billboards. Even if it is pleasant
to see advertisements, too many of them may worsen the town’s surrounding visual. Cities should
therefore restrict on how many advertisements are allowed while encouraging companies to advertise
their goods online or through other means, like social media. As authorities consider upgrading the
town centre, learning and educating the public and designers about visual pollution will enable the
users to protect their cities from such issue and enable the architects change the future plans to
incorporate more of the surrounding environment.
Based on the previous analysis, this study addresses a set of recommendations for reducing visual
pollution to create techniques that lessen the detrimental effects of various visual pollution objects,
such as:
1. When installing cellular mobile base stations, the architectural style of the nearby structures
must be taken into consideration.
2. Instead of constructing new structures, consider about the possibilities of using existing
structures as beacons, streetlight poles, mosque towers, etc. to hide transmitting equipment.
3. Regulate where directional signs are placed and make sure that their size, shape, and colour
are all the same. To reduce the visual effects of signboards, write the destinations on the
road’s surface.
4. Control outdoor advertising and implement maintenance policy.

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 5. Choose the least obstructive locations for the new traffic management components, such as
lights, radar, etc.
6. Implement a site fence with the right colour and material to minimize the unsightly effects of
construction sites.
7. Remove any neglected items, including vehicles, bicycles, commercial signs, boats, etc., and
impose a fine on the owners to stop them from occupying the space and ruining the view.
However, this paper identified that the most appropriate methods to control visual pollution and
enhance the attempts of reducing its impact are to: a) assign governmental laws and implement strong
acts that protect cities and towns from visual pollution, b) consider strong regulations and legislation
for future development projects and take urgent action against violators.
5 Conclusion
Despite its severe effects on people’s mental health and the quality of urban environments, visual
pollution is a concern that urban areas often ignore. It is our responsibility to lessen environmental
visual pollution and offer solutions. Controlling visual pollution remains difficult because of its
complexity and subjectivity yet assessing it and enacting laws in urban contexts is a significant step
towards reducing and preventing its effects. In keeping with the previous discussion, this paper
highlights that visual pollution is an arising issue that affects the quality of urban environment and
impact user’s behaviour. Therefore, this issue started to gain attention from decision makers in several
countries. Hence, this paper highlighted international and local efforts and acts in mitigating visual
pollution impact in urban settings. Various approaches and techniques that had been used in different
countries were addressed in this paper, besides a set of recommendations to boost and strengthen the
efforts of mitigating visual pollution impact was provided.

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Cite as: Al Midani D. & Fadli F., “An Analytical Review of Attempts to Mitigate Visual Pollution in Urban Settings”,
The 2nd International Conference on Civil Infrastructure and Construction (CIC 2023), Doha, Qatar, 5-8 February 2023,
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29117/cic.2023.0124

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