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Characterization and Evaluation of the Visual Impact of Mobile Communication Base Stations in the Urban Environment

Vanessa Vasquez 2, Víctor Cruz 1,2, María Mendez 1, Irma Solis 1, Francisco Aguilar 1, and Mario Chauca 1
1. Ricardo Palma University, Lima, Lima 15038, Perú
2. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Lima 15081, Perú

Abstract—Besides the increase of mobile communication services and providers in Peru, base stations (BS) have grown greatly without considering their visual impact. The characterization and evaluation of the visual impact from base stations to urban landscapes was carried out in the district of San Miguel, located in Lima, Peru. This district has a number of base stations suitable to conduct a pilot study. National and international regulations in force were reviewed, and the Manual for Camouflage of Radio Stations from Bogota DC, Colombia, was chosen as the basis for the visual impact evaluation. Then, a field study of mobile base stations located in the district of San Miguel was accomplished. After that, the matrices for evaluating the visual impact to each of the BS were applied. According to the evaluation, 12 BS (20.3 %) have a low visual impact, 42 BS (71.2 %) have a medium visual impact, and 5 BS (8.5 %) have a high visual impact. So, more than 90 % of the BS in San Miguel has low or medium visual impact.
 
Index Terms—Visual impact, mobile base stations, urban landscape, visual fragility

Cite: Vanessa Vasquez, Víctor Cruz, María Mendez, Irma Solis, Francisco Aguilar, and Mario Chauca, "Characterization and Evaluation of the Visual Impact of Mobile Communication Base Stations in the Urban Environment," Journal of Communications vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 239-249, April 2022. Doi: 10.12720/jcm.17.4.239-249

Copyright © 2022 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.