4.2.3. Public Perception

The detailed online questionnaire was filled by 681 participants, where 33% of the participants were males, and 67% of the participants were females. 85% of the participants were under the age of 45 years, and 15% of the participants were over the age of 45 years.

Regarding the public perception of the current character of Amman, the perception of the participants of the online questionnaire varied between "Amman is a city of traffic congestion" and "The city of Amman is rich in natural resources". The highest agreement for the current character of the city of Amman was 97.3%, where they agreed with the perception of "Amman is a city of traffic congestion". The participants agreed with at least one of the following "Amman is a city of all nationalities", "Amman is the city of the Seven Mountains", "Amman is a city of cement and stone blocks" and "Amman is a city rich in culture" by more than 80%. The current political, economic and social circumstances affected the public perception. As for the perception related to "Amman is the water city", 81.7% of participants considered that this perception is not related to the current character of the city of Amman, as the city suffers from the lack of water resources at present. The lowest percentages were for "Amman is the city for tourism", "The city of Amman is rich in recreational areas", "Amman is a city of brotherly love" and "The city of Amman is rich in natural resources".

In the open-ended online question concerning Amman's old, current and future character, the study focused upon repeated answers that received more than 30 repeats (Table 3). It shows that they acknowledged its old beauty, importance and historical character. They agreed that it does not have a current specific character, and that it is a symbol for traffic congestion. They developed concerns regarding its future character.


**Table 3.** Online, open-ended question results regarding the character of Amman; old, current and future.

The perceived results confirm the physical studies and show the importance of bringing back the ecological character Amman once had.
