Identifying economic and cultural criteria affecting aesthetic values using Delphi approach and public questionnaire in Gorgan city

Landscape aesthetic value is one of the ecosystem services, which has many social and economic benefits for the society and the residents. Therefore, identifying the economic and cultural criteria affecting aesthetic values by considering the experts and stakeholders perspective in order to assess and evaluate the aesthetic value is very important. The purpose of this research is to identify economic and cultural criteria affecting aesthetic values regarding the experts’ perspective and to examine the role of these criteria by considering the residents view of five districts of Gorgan city. The Delphi method was used to identify these criteria and using a public questionnaire, the role of these criteria on increasing the aesthetic quality of the study area was investigated. According to the results of the Delphi method, nine factors, including the cultural and historical heritage in the region, the number of visitors of natural areas, the existence of man-made tourism areas, the level of people's attitude and knowledge towards environmental protection, infrastructure and welfare services, environmental quality, urban design, safety and security were recognized as the most important economic and cultural criteria affecting the aesthetic values of Gorgan city. The results of surveying of the selected economic and cultural criteria in the public questionnaire showed that, the desirability of the studied districts is decreasing from South Estrabad, Roshan Abad, Qoroq, North Estrabad to Angirab according to public attitudes. The results of this research showed that considering the stakeholders perspective along with the expert’s opinion to determine the economic and cultural criteria can encourage residents and managers to better protection of the aesthetic values of the region.