Visual pollution leads to psychological and physical problems, starting with anxiety, tension, and psychological pressure, extending to the human body and causing heart, colon, and diabetes diseases.
Visual pollution is defined as every distortion that harms a person’s vision and causes him annoyance, discomfort, and psychological anxiety in the long term, such that he loses the aesthetic sense around him, by replacing beautiful scenes with conflicting and discordant ones. In simpler terms, it is a person’s tampering with public taste and scratching it intentionally or unintentionally. , turning his surroundings into a place full of negative elements, which leads to the disappearance of the aesthetic image of everything, and afflicts him with psychological and physical diseases that affect his daily life.
There are many causes of visual pollution, such as poor or neglected urban planning of cities, poor artistic designs, and great disparity in social classes. Economic progress also plays a large and effective role in the emergence or disappearance of this negative phenomenon. In rich and developed countries, laws, regulations, and social and cultural awareness control this phenomenon of pollution and work to reduce it, while the chaos of the weak and dispersed economy and the lack of public and private awareness cause it to dominate the image of the capital and major cities, such that hideous scenes become natural and familiar to the human eye, accompanied by human abandonment of standards. Aesthetic.
Integrated treatment
Psychiatrist Ali Al-Harjan confirms that visual pollution plays an important role in human life, but in a negative sense. The visual environment is formed in the brain through the entry of positively or negatively affecting images and scenes through the eyes into the brain, where they are accumulated and stored. When they reach the brain, ugly and harmful images lead to chemical changes and thus to serious psychological and physical effects, especially as they become stored in his conscious and subconscious memory.
Since the ocean affects the human psyche, the effects of pollution begin with psychological problems such as tension, distress, excessive nervousness, and disturbed behavior and worsen to become physical diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, joint and colon pain, and difficulty breathing.
Al-Harjan, who treats patients suffering from visual pollution, advises staying away from random urbanization and crowding of people and looking for calm and open, uncrowded places like nature because it stimulates a stable psychological state that is full of positive and stimulating effects on relaxation and psychological and physical comfort. Likewise, the doctor believes that the solution begins with not focusing on or avoiding the scenes or images that cause discomfort. He said, “One must distract oneself from these images.” He suggests, for example, that one turn on the radio and listen to music on the way to work instead. About looking at buildings, shops and artificial landscapes.
Among the proposed solutions, embarrassment encourages those affected by the negative psychological or physical effects of visual pollution to escape at the end of the week and go on vacations outside the city or engage in social relationships with friends. In the worst cases, when the effects become devastating and threaten a person’s life, Al-Harjan advises the patient to change his place of residence, work, or presence, even if he is forced to move away from his family and migrate to another region or country.
From his point of view as a psychiatrist, Al-Harjan explains that the treatment of visual pollution must sometimes be integrated from a psychological and medical perspective, as the patient will not be able to move forward with his life if he does not treat this harmful and chronic disease, especially since urbanization is on the way to increase, and crowding Sir also points out that he is forced to prescribe medications that help reduce stress, anxiety, and insomnia.
Dubai is better to live
Despite the stifling crowding and advanced urbanization, the city of Dubai is classified as the most suitable place for entertainment, fun and holidays, as it has been able to attract millions of Arab and foreign tourists. This Gulf emirate has turned into a destination for lovers of leisure tourism, due to the increasing interest of official and private bodies in making it a tourist city throughout the months of the year. Dubai has been able to compete with the cities of Beirut and Cairo in the field of entertainment and culture, being the only Gulf city that is ahead of those spread along the Mediterranean coast, with a relatively moderate climate.
On the other hand, the Planning and Survey Department of Dubai Municipality cooperated with the American University in Dubai in order to rehabilitate the commercial areas in Dubai, especially Deira and Bur Dubai, which are densely populated and urban, during a forum to overcome modern planning difficulties. The Dubai Sustainable Urban Development Forum was held to address the problems of the great urban growth taking place in the emirate, which has become an attractive city in the region and the world and a leader in all fields, which necessitated confronting the challenges it will suffer from, especially in popular places. The forum indicated that Dubai Municipality decided to rehabilitate these areas, which were the destination of businessmen and merchants before the opening of commercial centers, and improve them after they turned into a headquarters for people with relatively limited incomes.
Amazing life
Saed, a Syrian employee who moved to Dubai three years ago, confirms that life in Dubai is very different from Damascus, where the atmosphere is still somewhat popular and traditional. However, he has become accustomed to his new life and has adapted to Dubai and its lights and images, crowded with people and architecture. Despite the difference, Saed points out that a person is forced to adapt to his new surroundings because the requirements of life dictate this, but he adds that he prefers to live in Damascus, where the streets and old houses of the Levant are full of history and civilization, while high-rise towers spread in Dubai and densely populated areas and shops.
As for Lebanese Shadia, who went to Dubai over a year ago, she said that she was not surprised by life in Dubai because she lived in the city of Beirut, where there is urban and population congestion, but she acknowledged the vast difference between Beirut and Dubai, which is witnessing great urban development that is unusual in the Arab world. Shadia confirms that living in Dubai is “as easy as it is impossible,” in that a person can enjoy his professional and personal life, but he may suffer from problems of stress, psychological pressure, and exhaustion.
Karen, who works in public relations in Dubai, was amazed by the presence of high-rise towers in Dubai, and Sheikh Zayed Road in particular, and compared it to Western cities such as New York and Los Angeles. She loved living here because it resembles Western life. Karen enjoys watching the high, illuminated towers at night as if they were twinkling stars, while her sister Nina is annoyed by the crowds and old houses and buildings in Deira or Bur Dubai. She is also very annoyed when she has to enter Al Karama or Al Satwa, where there are many random shops and colorful signs, so she takes it from time to time. Vacations in which she travels to her home country or goes to one of the tourist resorts in the Emirate of Fujairah in order to relax and reduce the amount of stress and daily pressure. Maya, who has lived in Dubai since 2005, shares this opinion, because she hates the crowds and moving around in the streets of Dubai during the day, but she reluctantly admits that she is forced to live in Dubai, where she works, but she visits the capital, Abu Dhabi, every weekend, where her married sister resides, which gives her A breath of freedom away from Dubai, she also adds that she goes on group trips with her friends to tourist resorts or nearby trips.
Manifestations of visual pollution
The manifestations of visual pollution are numerous and branch out in cities, their streets, neighborhoods, and main and secondary roads, the most prominent of which are:
The spread of buildings and construction near archaeological sites or cemeteries.
The large number of waste barrels in the streets and their waste on the ground, not to mention their unpleasant smell.
The streets are crowded with mobile vendors spread across the main and commercial streets.
The varying heights of neighboring buildings or the presence of old and dilapidated buildings near high-rise towers.
Crowded storefronts, their different sizes, colors and lights, or their awnings turn into a place for dirt and dust.
The variety of lighting poles, their inconsistency, or their high height above the ground.
Leave old or broken cars on the sides of the roads.
Poor organization of placement of aerial dishes or power cables.
Balconies are closed randomly and turned into small rooms.
Smoke rises from polluting companies and factories.
Erecting buildings facing the natural landscape hinders the enjoyment of its beauty, or leaves nature neglected.
