Measuring the Desirability of Urban Appearance and Landscape for Tourism Development: A Case Study of Ardabil Entrances

The cityscape, particularly the city entrances, plays a significant role in attracting tourists and forming their initial impressions of a city. However, the entrance spaces of Ardabil, despite its rich cultural and historical heritage and strategic location as a major tourist destination, suffer from various problems and do not exhibit the desired characteristics. This research aims to assess the visual appeal and landscape quality of Ardabil's city entrances and prioritize them for future planning. The study adopts an applied research approach with a descriptive, analytical, and survey method. The research population consists of 15 urban planning experts and professionals in Ardabil. Four indicators, including physical, functional, aesthetic, and representation of the city's identity, were used to measure desirability. The Shannon's entropy model was utilized to assign weights to the indicators, and the PROMETHEE model was employed to prioritize the entrances based on the desired indicators. The results ranked the entrances as: 0.226, 0.011, -0.104, -0.074, with the first four entrances taking the top spots, and the Tehran-Ardabil entrance ranking fifth with a score of -0.059. Consequently, planning efforts should be organized according to the strengths and weaknesses of each entrance, while respecting the priority of intervention.