How Users Perceive and Respond to Urban Physical Changes Concerning Place Attachment (Case Studies: Eastern Marzdaran and Daryan No neighborhoods)

Urban context and environment and changes thereto, are among the factors affecting place attachment that by itself influences different personal and social features like personal relationships and feelings. Depending on how environmental changes and place attachment influence each other, the way users perceive environmental changes is different regarding their attachment to place. The way of perception has different consequences and responses from the users. Few studies have been conducted on the way in which people perceive environmental changes regarding place attachment. Little attention has been paid to the relationship between place attachment and the way of perception of urban changes in most of the studies, and these studies are more descriptive than experimental, being more concerned with individual and their individual characteristics. The present paper aims to examine how people perceive, interpret, evaluate and respond to the various environmental changes especially physical, regarding people's attachment to place.
This study was conducted using content analysis and Grounded Theory methods and with inductive and interrogative strategy. Its purpose is to achieve a model related to how the residents of Daryan No and Eastern Marzdaran neighborhoods (located in District 2 of Tehran) perceive and respond to environmental changes by discovering concepts and categories and the relationship between them. Finally, based on the users' perception, it was found that place attachment caused by urban physical changes has dimensions including: non-physical factors, type of physical changes and its speed and extent, psychological responses (psychological feelings and motivations) and practical responses. It is formed in a specific time and place. Based on the results, the response to changes can be defined as two categories of either stay or move (displacement) with different physical to behavioral actions.