visual contamination

Culture

2022

We explain what visual pollution is, its causes and the different effects it produces. Also, their possible solutions and examples.

Visual pollution presents elements such as posters, cables, poles, advertisements, etc.

What is visual pollution?

As well as the pollution is the presence in the environment of toxic substances or other than their physical and chemical cycles, we call visual pollution the presence of visual elements in a landscape that interrupt its esthetic, violate their overall perception and hinder their perception of the environment.

Visual pollution It can occur in both rural and urban environments, given the presence of non-architectural elements such as posters, antennas, cables, poles, advertisements, trellises, among other possible factors that generate visual over-stimulation of an aggressive, invasive and generally simultaneous nature.

This type of irruption generates a environmental impact not negligible, since its affectation of the quality of life in contaminated environments it is notorious and considerable.

In general, these are elements that contradict the aesthetic or panoramic trend of the scenery, introducing alien visual content that ugly or corrupts the environment.

As with other forms of pollution, visual pollution requires regulations, laws and ordinances that keep it below the minimum limits of what is acceptable. Visually highly polluted environments generate rejection and force people to flee quickly.

Causes of visual pollution

Visual pollution tends to be a consequence of human activity.

Visual pollution, like other forms of pollution, tends to be the result of human activity. The advertising, urban expansion, industrialization and agricultural life often leave visual traces of their existence, many of which are not intended to interfere as little as possible with the environment, or are even intended to highlight the environment as much as possible.

All this stress that visual pollutants put on passersby, forcing them to pay their attention or distracting them from what could be a friendly or peaceful environment, ends up driving people away or, failing that, stressing them and making them suffer.

Effects of visual pollution

The main effects of visual pollution on Humans point to increased stress, which significantly deteriorates their working conditions. life, work or development.

Stress can have an impact on people's cardiovascular health, in their Health emotional or psychological and even decrease your margins of productivity by constantly distracting them.

On the other hand, visual pollution has a negative impact on the sightseeing and recreational activities, as it makes hostile environments that should be harmonious or peaceful, and this in turn has economic and social consequences.

Solutions to visual pollution

Some possible solutions for environmental pollution are:

  • Reduction and control of the amount of advertisements or other types of advertisements that are allowed in a specific area, urban or rural.
  • Frequent removal of outdated signs, posters, and other advertisements, especially when they are large and colors bright.
  • Planning of protected areas within cities, such as parks and other environments that allow visual and auditory rest.
  • Visually schedule the urban and architectural development of the town, allowing the people to exercise a comptroller in this sense.
  • Protection and promotion of trees in the city.

Examples of visual contamination

The abandonment of bulky buildings is an example of visual pollution.

Some possible examples of visual contamination are:

  • The excessive presence of poles and wiring electricity or telephony in important natural or tourist landscapes.
  • The overcrowding of intra- or extra-urban expressways with advertising and large advertisements with lights, movement, colors.
  • Placing announcements and messages on billboards light, walls and trees during electoral campaigns, which after the elections are not removed and remain in place for months and even years.
  • The abandonment of unfinished bulky or tall buildings in cities.

Noise pollution

Just as there is visual pollution, there is also noise pollution (also called pollution sonorous oracoustics): the presence of annoying or deafening noises in quiet surroundings, or the excess of simultaneous sounds in a certain area.

This form of pollution produces stressful and overwhelming effects not only on human beings, but on other forms of life, and in the long term it can lead to specific physical or medical damages.

Increased stress, damage to the hearing system and even headaches and symptoms of disorientation or lightheadedness can occur in highly acoustically polluted environments.

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