Economic and tourism uses from rivers of Kermanshah and its impact on the aesthetic characteristics

Aesthetic characteristics of rivers is the main reason of attracting tourists. But the unexpected presence as well as economic activities by local residents has reduced aesthetic quality of the rivers of Kermanshah. For planning purposes, it was study and ranked the aesthetic quality of 19 tourist sites. Therefore the leopold’s method was used in which 46 effective factors divided to three types of factors, physical, biological and human interest factors, and then the factors was measured or scored from 1 to 5 in the field. The results of the comparison charts and tables showed that width, depth and pattern of river through of physical factors , and the clear and discoloration of water and presence of trees around the rivers through biological factors are the most important aesthetic factors. While between these two groups of factors, only in some places muddy and dull color of the water has reduced the quality of them. Despite these factors, human interest factors have had the greatest impact in quality of rivers in this region . Some areas, such as the village of Galin which have been out of reach, have been able to maintain its beauty. However, the high degree of urbanization and construction and economic activities on the river’s valleys and river’s beds such as the construction of fish ponds not only has been influenced the quality of landscapes strongly but also affected their physical and biological characteristics. The expansion of human activities such as building dams has transformed the landscape of some areas.