Relevance of the Subject. City image and the way an individual perceives the surrounding urban environment interested many thinkers in different epochs. In the 20th century, scholars in various fields have started taking interest in this area of knowledge. The following branches of science made a significant contribution to the investigation and formation of city image – behavioural, environmental psychology and sociology, sociology of architecture, environmental planning, as well as sustainable planning, ecology, architecture, urban planning and other branches of science. Environmental psychology is one of the branches of science, which is most closely related to this sphere. Major works in the field of environmental psychology were presented to the world by I. Altman, the British geographer J. Appleton, who proposed the habitat theory, A. De Botton, K. Franck, R. Gifford, J. J. Gibson who formulated the concept of affordance, R. Hart, B. Hiller who investigated the syntax of space, C. R. Jeffery who studied the possibilities of crime prevention in planning the urban environment, R. Kaplan and S. Kaplan, C. Katz, S. Low, K. Lynch who introduced the forming of mental maps, H. Proshansky, A. Rapoport, L. Rivlin, S. Saegert, R. Ulrich, G. Winkel, and other. K. Lynch who investigated the subject of the present work most closely defined place image as a simple, purely physical conception of identification, which can be transformed into exclusiveness and recognisability... [to full text]

Irrespective of the previous investigations, dependence of the image of the urban environment on a combination between a) physical objects, b) relationship and connection between objects and c) dynamics of human activity rather than on the material expression of the activity alone, remains insufficiently investigated in both Lithuanian and foreign works. It is this aspect that forms the subject of the investigation of the present work. Its main attention is focused on the impact the urban environment has on city image. The novelty of the work consists in the following: 1) criteria and methodology forassessing city image are presented, indicators for city image-building are proposed; 2) dependence of city image on the urban environment is considered; 3) urban measures that help create city image in the desired direction in an organised way are reviewed. Objective and Goals of the Work. The objective of this work is to define the principles of analysing and applying city image as a result of human activity. The goals of this work are as follows: 1) to define the concept of city image as a psychological construct; 2) to specify the connection between city image and behaviour of the people; 3) to establish major indicators of a contemporary city image – the criteria according to which it is expedient to investigate city image; 4) to review key measures for urban planning, having an impact on the modification of city image; 5) to substantiate the advantage of the city centre... [to full text]