The impact of transformation of cultural landscape on social behavioral patterns in Jaffna

Abstract

Jaffna city contains a distinctive social identity. The recognition of the Jaffna historical towns and their character as well as living atmospheres have been under threat since 1980, as a result of civil war, urbanization, and some other intangible factors.The meaningful environment features should be the sense of community and its attachment, recognition, continuity and longevity with the atmosphere we live in. The meaningful environment should be prevailed even though the social behavioral patterns and cultural landscape are being changed. Unfortunately, all the features that make a city unique and add value to the community are continuing to disappear. Therefore, it is imperative to ascertain the reasons behind the changes and provide necessary solutions through findings.The Information Processing Theory and the Place Identity Theory are being applied to analyze and strengthen the transformation of the cultural landscape and thesocialbehavioralpatterns.Thereareseveralattributesthatimpact on thebehavioralpatterns of thepeople. Case study areas are selected to analyze and visualizethe transformation of cultural landscape for it often changes periodically. Considering all these factors, a proper landscape management is desperately needed to preserve the character of Jaffna and its social identity in order to enhance the future of Jaffna.