Behavioral outdoor activities are considered as the actions through which participants interact with the outdoor environment; physical or/and social. The outdoor environment affects participants’ motivations as well as the type of activities taking place through what Gibson (1979) names “the affordance theory” , where some milieus “afford” or “fit” (Alexander 1964) , a specific behavior better than others. On the other hand, the existence of activities not only depends on the environment and whether it affords its existence but also on the cultural context of the participants. Thus environment and activities affordance theory when applied to waterfronts could not be generalized since there are cultural differences between participants that largely influence the type of activities participated by waterfronts. Meaning that whenever water bodies are present not all water-related activities will take place, as part of activities’ existence depend on participants’ culture and attraction to such activities. The significance of a waterfront as an open space is that it represents a physical container of participants’ culture, as such, it is the expression of the people and the waterfront is an expression of what we are as a culture, (Richard Marshall (2001)) . Accordingly participants by waterfronts are engaged in activities which not only fulfill their needs but also correlate with their culture and accommodate with the environment and what it affords. |
