Abstract:
The built-up areas of the rapidly urbanizing planet are increasingly affected by
urban visual pollution. Outdoor advertisements were the primary sources of visual
pollution, affecting an area's visual pollution index and revenue generation
potential. In developing countries, current practices of misinformed and
unmanaged outdoor advertising (particularly billboards) impede effective visual
pollution control. The purpose of this thesis was to propose a spatial decision
support system (SDSS) that will assist all stakeholders (development control
authorities, advertisers, billboard owners, and the general public) in balancing the
ideal placement of billboards under the governing regulations. SDSS was based on
well-known geospatial open-source technology and employs a spatial decisionmaking
technique influenced by the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). It can
assist customers in identifying possible places for new billboard placement and
selecting boards from existing sites based on a range of attributes through its
category-specific user interface. To analyze the system's initial effectiveness, all
stakeholders' observations were collected in the form of panel feedback. The
proposed system was shown to be effective in identifying hotspots for targeted
management and research of the optimum locations for new billboards. As a result,
it assists advertising companies, local governments, and city councils in better
planning and management of existing billboard locations in order to maximize
revenue while also improving urban aesthetics. By implementing jurisdictional
rules and regulations, the system may be copied in other countries, regardless of
spatial limits.
