Behavior Mapping, an approach to assessment of Urban spaces responsiveness. Case study: Recreational space of Zrêbar lake Waterfront, Marivan, Kurdistan

The primary audience of an urban space is its users; urban spaces are given meaning and can be considered a place by people. Therefore, success of every urban space is related to its responsiveness to user's behavior, user demand and the compatibility of the ‘Environment’ with the ‘Behavior’ which lead to friendly urban spaces, maintain its number of users and encourage their presence in that urban space. Thus, a survey of the users of an urban space can be considered a valuable source in planning, management and designing of urban spaces. In order to analyse a public space’s responsiveness, it is considered a useful source to concentrate on user’s behavior which is a first step in this process of Behavior mapping. Behavior mapping utilizes a variety of behavior mapping types in different seasons, different months, different days and different hours of the day so as to obtain a clear vision of the current situation of urban spaces, diverse uses of urban space and measure the coordination of layout (Environment) and content (Behavior). Zrêbar lake Waterfront ambiance, which has a virgin nature, is the most remarkable recreational urban space for the inhabitants in Marivan. Furthermore, it is one of the most attractive destinations in Kurdistan Province for holidaymakers. In this article, behavior mapping was carried out in 36 days, in three seasons of 2015 (Spring, Summer and Autumn) and on all the days of the week in the aforementioned environment. This article briefly reviews the theories and methods of experts in environmental psychology and behavior mapping and categorizes these methods by taking the available facilities into account. Finally, consistent with existing conditions, various types of behavior mapping was applied including Stationary Behavior Mapping, Tracking, Tracing and Territorialization. Therefore, this research stems from fieldwork with a cross-sectional approach that was undertaken to measure responsiveness of the mention environment regarding activities and behaviors that occurred. Evaluation method used consisted of direct observation and presence in the environment. The data and quantitative indicators were analyzed by SPSS and the spatial data was analyzed by GIS. The results obviously indicate that users of Zrêbar lake waterfront are not satisfied with the current situation. Shortage of quality seating and sitting areas, the lack of time spent in the environment by users and also a lack of suitable conditions to support interesting activities and behaviors, ignoring needs of different ages in design (especially children and teenager age groups), lack of opportunity for users to touch the water and do water fights are examples of users dissatisfaction of the present condition and demonstrates that the current situation does not address users’ needs properly.