Urban Environmental Quality Mapping: A Perception Study on Chittagong Metropolitan City

Abstract

Urbanization is a global phenomenon. It is taking place at a faster pace in the less developed countries of the world like Bangladesh. The implication of such urbanization are manifested in mass poverty, gross inequality, high unemployment, crowded housing, proliferation of slums and squatters, deterioration in the environmental condition, highly inadequate supply of water, over crowding in schools and hospitals, increase in traffic jams, road accidents, crimes and social tensions. These features are the characteristics of nearly all urban centers of Bangladesh. The study has endeavored to analyze both the factual status and the perceptual pattern of the environmental quality of Chittagong Metropolitan City. The factual data have been collected from various secondary sources; while the perceptual data are based on a questionnaire survey of opinions of 492 respondents at the household level by city ward. Finally, it has been statistically justified by the use of a satisfaction index to know the degree of satisfaction of the respondents and chi-square test to examine the relationship between the income groups and degree of satisfaction. The study of perception residents f the different environmental aspects, show variation of degree of satisfaction by income groups and by groups of environmental features. The expected growth of population in Chittagong city will have adverse impact on the quality of urban environment.

GIS-based assessment of urban environmental quality in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

“…Left unsolved, landslides and flooding, among other hazards, can potentially sink urban centers into environmental chaos (Nyambod, 2010). Among others, some recent studies on cities in developing countries considered natural hazards, e.g., including flash flood in assessing the UEQ of Chittagong, Bangladesh (Majumder, Hossain, Islam, & Sarwar, 2007) and considering flood and waterlogging in assessing the UEQ of Santiago, Chile (Romero et al, 2012).…”

Classification of residential areas according to physical vulnerability to natural hazards: a case study of Çanakkale, Turkey

“…This work often focuses on parameters such as building and population density, ground features, land use, and urban pattern and infrastructure (Balamir, 2002;Solway, 2004;Balyemez and Berköz, 2005;Ünlü, 2005; Bayındırlık ve İskan Bakanlığı, 2009). Similar parameters are also addressed in research on the quality of the environment and of life in housing areas (Lansing and Marans, 1969;Majumder et al, 2007;Marans, 2007). Geis (2000) emphasised the strong relationship between a disaster-resistant community and a sustainable qualityof-life community.…”

“…Geis (2000) emphasised the strong relationship between a disaster-resistant community and a sustainable qualityof-life community. Majumder et al (2007) evaluated various indicators in neighbourhoods, including domestic solid waste management, education, internet, and recreation facilities, electricity, gas, and water supplies, health care service, housing conditions, illegal housing, public health, sewage and drainage system, telephone service, and wastewater treatment. Bartone, Bernstein, and Eigen (1994, p. 15) defined the key indicators of the urban environment, such as drainage, piped water, power lines, rubbish collection, sewage, and streets, on a community scale.…”

Chittagong, Bangladesh

“…Additionally, due to high rural-urban migration and areal expansion in Chittagong, waste management has become a serious problem that has damaged its environment (Majumder, Hossain, Islam, & Sarwar, 2007;Sujauddin, Huda, & Hoque, 2008). It is quite common to see household and industrial waste dumped on the roadside, and in rivers and drainages (Sujauddin et al, 2008).…”