THE EVALUATION OF URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN KONYA CBD BY COGNITIVE MAPPING METHOD

Abstract: The cities as being a techno-ecosystem is designed by urban and regional planner, the urban environment perceptions of urban planners is an important indicator of sustainability. The aim of this study is to evaluate urban and regional planning students' perception of urban environment about Konya CBD. Especially the central business districts (CBDs) are the most densely structured city centers and the most populated areas are day and night. In this study, students were asked to add ecological urban environmental performance criteria to the image components of Lynch's (1960) urban image cognitive mapping technique in order to measure the perception of CBD urban environment. The theoretical framework of the research consists of determining the ecological environmental image elements in the students' minds and determining which ecological performance principles are combined with these elements. Data was collected from city and regional planning department’s students the third and the fourth classes with 12% sampling size. The findings of the study showed that the most important reference points and paths were given priority in the cognitive maps of Konya CBD, and environment-sensitive building orientations, climate sensitive designs characteristics, quality of open space areas and the principles of green city design were weak.