Plastiras Lake: influence of the relief on the revelation of the water presence

The Plastiras Lake is an artificial reservoir, constructed for hydroelectric use and noticed for its beautiful scenery. The landscape is dominated by the presence of water, which constitutes a pleasant aesthetic target that attracts the observer and can therefore be determined as a magnetic focus point. The lake is a typical surrounded landscape, with high mountains at a small distance from the water, as a result of the steep riparian contours. This is a common characteristic of mountain artificial lakes, where the scenery is usually considered to be superior to that of natural lakes. The landscape morphology also affects the observation of the magnetic focus point, which differs in the northern and the southern side of the Plastiras Lake. In the north, the slopes are smooth and the magnetic focus is weak, whereas in the south the landscape elements are clearly distinguishable and apprehensible. For the same reasons the axes composing the landscape in the southern part are more intense than in the northern part. As a matter of fact, on each side of the lake, the landscape relief plays a different role in assisting the revelation of the magnetic focus point to the observer. The observation gravity circles are a tool that can be used in order to obtain a qualitative assessment of the intensity of revelation of the magnetic focus point. The circle size is relative to the distance from the subject and is also greatly affected by the relief. It must be taken into account however, that aesthetic elements such as the revelation of the magnetic focus can not be quantified.