Visual pollution leads to psychological and physical problems, ranging from anxiety, tension, and psychological pressure, to extending to the human body and infecting it with heart disease, colon and diabetes.  

Visual pollution is defined as every distortion that harms human eyesight and causes him discomfort, discomfort, and psychological anxiety in the long run, so that he loses the aesthetic sense around him, by replacing beautiful scenes with conflicting and dissonant ones, and in an easier sense, that man tampered with public taste, and deliberately or unintentionally scratched it And transforming his surroundings into a place teeming with negative elements, which leads to the disappearance of the aesthetic image from everything, and his suffering from psychological and physical diseases that affect his daily life.

There are many causes of visual pollution, such as poor or neglected urban planning for cities, poor technical designs, and great disparities in social classes. Economic progress 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 pollution phenomenon and work to reduce it, while the chaos of the weak and dispersed economy and the lack of public and private awareness of its control over the image of the capital and major cities, so that ugly scenes become natural and familiar to the human eye, accompanied by human abandonment of standards aesthetic;

An integrated treatment

The 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 images and scenes affecting positively or negatively through the eyes into the brain, where they are accumulated and stored.

And when they reach the brain, the ugly and harmful images lead to chemical changes and thus to serious psychological and physical effects, especially as they become stored in its conscious and unconscious memory. 

Since the environment affects the human psyche, the effects of pollution begin with psychological problems such as tension, distress, excessive nervousness and turbulent behavior, and worsen to become physical diseases such as high pressure, heart, diabetes, joint pain, colon and difficulty breathing. 

Al-Harjan, who treats patients with visual pollution, advises to stay away from random urbanization and crowding of residents and to search for calm and open and not crowded places such as nature because it stimulates the stability of the psychological state, which 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 the scenes or images that cause discomfort or avoiding them and avoiding them, as he said, “One should distract oneself from these images.” He suggests, for example, that one turns on the radio and listens to music on the way to work instead. About looking at buildings, shops and artificial landscapes.

Among the proposed solutions, embarrassment affected by the negative psychological or physical effects of visual pollution encourages weekend getaways, out-of-town vacations, or socializing with friends.

In the worst cases, when the effects become devastating and threaten one'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 point of view, as the patient will not be able to move forward in his life if he does not treat this harmful and chronic disease, especially since urbanization is on the way to increasing, and overcrowding Sir as well, and indicates that he has to prescribe medications that help reduce stress, anxiety and insomnia.

Dubai is better to live

in spite of the stifling traffic and advanced urbanization, the city of Dubai is classified as the most suitable place for entertainment, fun and holidays, as it managed to attract millions of Arab and foreign tourists. months of the year.

Dubai has been able to compete with the cities of Beirut and Cairo in the field of entertainment and culture to be the only Gulf city that is ahead of those spread on the shore of the Mediterranean, with a relatively mild climate.

On the other hand, the Department of Planning and Survey 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 urbanized, during a forum to overcome modern planning difficulties.

The Dubai Sustainable Urban Development Forum was held to address the problems of the large urban growth taking place in the emirate, which has become an attractive city in the region and the world and a pioneer in all fields, which necessitated facing the challenges that it will suffer from, especially in popular places.

The forum indicated that Dubai Municipality decided to rehabilitate and improve these areas, which were the destination of businessmen and merchants before the opening of commercial centers, after they were transformed into the headquarters of people with relatively low incomes. 

An 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, but he is accustomed to his new life and adapts to Dubai and its lights and images crowded with crowds, people and urbanization.

Despite the difference, Saed points out that a person has to adapt to his new surroundings because the requirements of life dictate that, but he adds that he prefers to live in Damascus, where the streets and old houses in the Levant are fragrant with history and civilization, while high towers spread in Dubai and densely populated areas and shops.

As for Shadia, the Lebanese, who went to Dubai a year ago, she said that she was not surprised by life in Dubai because she used to live in the city of Beirut, where it is overcrowded and overcrowded, but she acknowledged the vast difference between Beirut and Dubai, which is witnessing a great and unusual urban development in the Arab world.

Shadia stresses that living in Dubai is "like an easy one", so that a person can enjoy his practical and personal life, but he may suffer from problems of tension, pressure, psychological and exhaustion.

Karen, who works in the field of public relations in Dubai, was surprised by the presence of high-rise towers in Dubai and Sheikh Zayed Road in particular, and compared them to Western cities such as New York and Los Angeles, and she loved living here because it resembles Western life.

Karen enjoys watching the tall and luminous towers at night as if they were twinkling stars, while her sister Nina was disturbed by the crowding and the old houses and buildings in Deira or Bur Dubai. Vacations in which she travels to her mother country or goes to one of the tourist resorts in the Emirate of Fujairah in order to relax and relieve the tension and daily pressure. 

manifestations of visual pollution

 There are many manifestations of visual pollution and branch out in cities, streets, neighborhoods, main and secondary roads, the most prominent of which are:

Inconsistency between old and new neighboring buildings and poor urban planning, such as different colors of paint, glass and aluminum windows, balcony doors, or large advertisements on the roofs, and their many conflicting colors... 

the spread of buildings and urbanization near archaeological sites or cemeteries. 

The large number of waste barrels in the streets and their waste on the ground, not to mention their foul smell.  

Crowded streets with mobile vendors scattered in the main and commercial streets.    

The height of the neighboring buildings varies or the presence of old and dilapidated buildings near the tallest towers.   

The crowding of the storefronts of different sizes, colors and lights, or turning their umbrellas into a place for dirt and dust.

Diversity of lighting poles and their inconsistency or high height from the ground.     

Leave old or wrecked cars on the roadsides.

Poor arrangement of the placement of air dishes or power cables.

The balconies were closed randomly and turned into small rooms.  

The smoke of polluting companies and laboratories rose.   

The erection of buildings facing the landscape, which leads to impeding the enjoyment of its beauty, or leaving nature neglected.