Visual Impact Assessment- Airport Terminal
The consequences of visual transportation projects may either be a short or long term. The short-term impacts include visual degradation of debris, equipment, and staging the construction zone (Sinha & Labi, 2011). However, the facilities for construction influence the entire quality of the area through additional of physical elements on the landscape. The potential view catchment where there will be a visibility of the new airport terminal should extend longer distances to offer a direct view of the port due to the partial and complete screening effects of different elements of the landscape. According to the anticipation on the visibility, the potential impacts of the new terminal under construction and operation would be the same. That is all activities, structures as well as the mobile elements will be visible from the same point during construction and operation.
The visual and dominant elements that will create a visual impact during the operation of the airport terminal are inclusive of the following:
Cargo sacks that offer a vertical element to the new terminal.
The equipment of the terminal that can stand out as prominent vertical features.
Lighting in the terminal. This will increase the light spills while adding the existing terminal lighting from the airport so that it can be visible from the viewpoint areas.
Airplanes- their movement will increase the value to the visual impact of the terminal.
The assessment of the visual effects from private residential areas is not accessible since it is considered that the views from such points especially in the public sphere represent a sufficient observation from the residential places. Similarly, the assessment considers the effects of long streets that forms corridors within the local region. Thereby, creating an important public open space. Consequently, the visual impact of the airport terminal when observed from the local viewpoints would have a low visual impact. This is because of the relatively flat topography of the local area that makes the local views of the streets and parks be obscured by the existing buildings as well as vegetation (Sydney Ports- Port Expansion Chapter 25, 2016).
When the airport terminal is viewed from the regional perspective locations, it will have a low and moderate visual impact. This is as a result of the large separation of the viewing locations, particularly from the airport. Moreover, it will be due to the development would be viewed within the context of the existing port with similar structures located immediately adjacent to the proposed site. Therefore, urban buildings normally reduce the regional views to previews. However, the aerial view will be high, but the proposed development of the terminal will be observed within the context of the existing port and other industrial land use areas.
Conclusion
The quality of the visual area of the airport terminal is relatively low due to the following factors: flat topography, low vegetation, and the dominance of the industrial landscape components. However, the construction of the terminal will lead to high and moderate visual effects especially when viewed from the air, and immediate vicinity of the airport. On the other hand, observations from other locations would be low or moderate. But this may be limited by distance and the partial screening effects of the existing elements of the landscape. In the terminal, there should be a low profile lighting in public areas that are projecting towards the ground to reduce the visual impact when viewed from a distance.
References
Sinha, K. & Labi, S. (2011). Transportation Decision Making: Principle of Project Evaluation and Programming (p. 363). Hoboken, United States: Wiley ProQuest ebray.
Sydney Ports- Port Expansion Chapter 25. (2016). Visual Impact Assessment, 2.
