RESIDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF RIVERINE LANDSCAPE CHANGES; CASE STUDY OF BEYKOZ STREAM/ İSTANBUL

Abstract

Residents are an inevitable part of the urban projects. Thus, knowing about their perceptions and preferences is a key factorin conducting any changes in the urban environment. This issue is of greater importance in urban river enhancement projects,as the rivers are associated with various economic, cultural, and social issues of the residents. The main goal of the presentresearch is to assess the riverine landscape of Beykoz in İstanbul after bearing tremendous changes. The riverine landscape issurveyed considering the natural features, physical elements, and the people’s perception in particular. The main part is basedon the interview with the local residents to achieve their comments about the stream changes and their ecological and culturalmemories attached to the site. The results indicate that there is valuable information in residents’ perceptions about naturalcorridors like the streams that should be evaluated before any restorative or enhancement operations. Changing the streamchannel and its bank with no care of the residents’ dimension will disturb the place identity, sense of belongingness, and theunique meanings associated with the urban rivers. Visual access to the stream, the stream’s natural landscape with nativevegetation, its biodiversity, its sound, and color are the factors that should be maintained during the urban river projects.