Abstract
Currently, the world is dealing with a new coronavirus which poses a worldwide risk to humans. It has a significant impact on people's daily lives and altered the entire world temporarily. Although countries' restrictions during the pandemic vary, people's first common behavior after the lockdowns was using open and green space (OGS). Based on a large survey in England, 74% of adults said that they are more aware of nature in their neighborhoods. However, even though people's awareness of urban green spaces has increased, the pandemic could have damaged human and nature interactions. For instance, according to the research conducted in Canada, some people may develop "biophobia" after the pandemic, and their willingness to interact with nature can decrease. Therefore, this research is conducted to examine people's changing use of their physical environment in the post-covid world by utilizing previous interdisciplinary literature on environmental psychology. It is intended to answer the following questions: To what extent the COVID-19 altered people's use of open and green spaces and densities? How do physical and individual attributes affect OGS uses of neighbors during the outbreak. According to Lang (1987), people's needs are extremely big, diverse, and ever-changing in the contemporary world; therefore, it is crucial for urban planners and designers to be informed. Even though many inquiries draw key frameworks of green space benefits, preferences, perceptions, and uses, there is a lack of information about alterations in OGS uses and densities in neighborhoods after the outbreak. Cigdem Neighborhood in Ankara and participants of 100 neighbors were chosen for this research. The main reason behind the area selection is that the neighborhood consists of different open and green spaces, and obtaining data from various characteristics of these is crucial for the validity of the study. In the ongoing process, there will be a survey and mapping activity integrated inside the survey will be conducted. The questions about physical and individual variables that come from environmental psychology literature. These questions include personal traits of participants such as age, gender, income, and parental effects; most preferred spaces for activities; types of activities; frequency of going to open and green spaces before and after COVID-19. After that, participants will be asked questions on two maps showing the open and green spaces they used before and after the pandemic. By analyzing the data, it is expected to understand people's use of their environment after the outbreak and the importance of OGS in a neighborhood in order to establish healthy communities.
