Urban environmental quality: perceptions and measures in three UK cities

Abstract

The recent promotion of city centre living within UK policy has led to commensurate interest in the quality of the urban environment, particularly the impact and influence that environmental quality has on quality of life and urban sustainability. This paper presents an overview of a study into environmental quality, looking at the environmental conditions and the opinions and experiences of people who live in three of the UK's major cities; London, Sheffield and Manchester. Environmental quality is both subjective and objective in its nature, and it is this combination that is of particular interest to this study. An innovative multi-method approach, combining qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques, has been developed and employed. Environmental monitoring (indoor and outdoor air quality and noise levels) was undertaken alongside participant lead photo-surveys, sound-walks and semistructured interviews with city centre residents. The case studies provide a detailed insight into the components that influence environmental quality; both perceived and measured. The collection and analysis of data has led to the production of 'local environmental quality maps' -spatial representations of local and expert knowledge on urban environmental factors. These maps offer a way to feed different perspectives on environmental issues to decision makers for future policy development. The findings of this study help to understand the influence environmental quality has on quality of life, this in turn can aid urban policy, planning and design. The wider implications of this study to the concept of urban sustainability are also discussed.

On the Necessity of an Integrated, Participative and Adaptive Approach to Sustainable Urban Environmental Quality Planning

“…Fischer & Amekudzi, 2011;Felce & Perry, 1995;Moore et al, 2006). It is widely accepted that no straightforward relation exists between the two .…”

“…It is widely acknowledged that quality indicators can be of a subjective as well as an objective nature (Fischer & Amekudzi, 2011;Howley et al, 2009;Lee, 2008;Marans, 2003;Moore et al, 2006). Subjective indicators, such as citizens' complaints (for instance about noise nuisance), are used to assess urban environmental quality (Carvalho & Fidélis, 2009).…”

“…Karatzas and Lee (2008) found that perception of air quality was dependent upon information about objective pollutant concentrations. Moore et al (2006) took a multi-method approach to bring together objective and subjective assessments of urban environmental quality, making residents reflect on their perception. Chen et al describe a community project in a deteriorating city centre in which community awareness of and involvement in sustainable housing and neighbourhood development were increased.…”

“…It is the subjective perception and evaluation of these objective conditions that ultimately determines how quality is perceived, whether in terms of quality of life (Felce & Perry, 1995) or urban environmental quality (Moore et al, 2006). Although objective and subjective measures of quality differ fundamentally, they are generally considered to complement one another and, jointly, to well represent quality (Marans, 2003;Marans, 2015;Pacione, 2003;Perlaviciute & Steg, 2012;Santos & Martins, 2007).…”

“…In each domain, multiple and only partly distinct dimensions can be distinguished. In the urban subdomain for example: the environmental quality; the availability of facilities; and the amount of green space (Moore et al, 2006;Silva, 2015). Urban environmental quality -which is the focus of this paper and is considered to be the physical sub-domain of urban quality of lifetherefore has a multidimensional character as well.…”