Image of city: A case study on historic peninsula of İstanbul

Urban image studies are remarkably important to understand an environment with physical and psychological elements. For this reason, the research presents the urban images of individuals using the Istanbul Historical Peninsula. This study aims to analyse the relationship among urban elements with perceptions of green space, safe, unsafe, likeable, unlikeable, preferable and unpreferable places, and to obtain the general urban image of the research area. For this purpose, 210 questionnaires were conducted with the subjects. Then, questionnaires with verbal and hand drawing sections were analysed via MAXQDA 2018 Analytics Pro program. To reach reliable results, Kuckartz & Rädikers zeta, Russel Rao and Jaccard similarity analyses were performed and the average similarity value was approximately obtained as "0.70". Findings showed that the Landmark and District elements are more dominant than other elements (Paths, Nodes and Edges). Besides, it was determined that there are similar relationships among the perception of safe places vs. the preferable venues and unsafe vs. unpreferable places. As a result, the potential for urban legibility and imageability has been determined predominantly in the east of the study area due to psychological boundaries.