Urban sprawl: neighbourhood dissatisfaction and urban preferences. Some evidence from Flanders

Abstract

Early studies suggest that people living in rural neighbourhoods are more satisfied with their residential location than people living in cities. Consequently, most individuals seem to prefer low-density environments to reside in. More recent studies, however, state that rural residents are no more likely to be satisfied with their residential neighbourhood than their urban counterparts. In addition, a considerable, growing part of the population seems to have a clear preference for urban neighbourhoods. The results of our research, conducted in Flanders, Belgium, suggest that urbanites are more satisfied with their neighbourhood than rural residents are. Neighbourhood preferences differ less between urbanites and rural residents. However, there are differences indicating that urbanites have a preference for rural neighbourhoods and rural residents a preference for urban neighbourhoods. In sum, it seems that people, once they have selected their residential location, are not satisfied with the neighbourhood characteristics and tend to develop a preference for a different neighbourhood type. This mismatch can be partly explained by the strongly developed urban sprawl in Flanders, reducing the residential qualities of urban and especially rural environments. Restricting further urban sprawl, with the help of a more active spatial planning policy, seems necessary to increase neighbourhood satisfaction. 2

Breastfeeding practices in the United Kingdom: Is the neighbourhood context important?

“…However, neighbourhood satisfaction is complex as it appears to be rooted in personal, psychological, and social factors over and above the physical environment (Hur, Nasar, & Chun, 2010). Moreover, neighbourhood perceptions are likely to vary by urban/rural residence (De Vos, Van Acker, & Witlox, 2016;Salmon et al, 2013). In England and Scotland, sense of belonging and area satisfaction were perceived slightly higher among rural residents (Pateman, 2011).…”

The Correlational Relationship between Residential Satisfaction, Place Attachment, and Intention to Move: A Preliminary Study in Belawan, Medan

“…The micro focus assesses satisfaction with residential occupancy (Huang, Du, & Yu, 2015;Zhang et al, 2018). Meanwhile, the macro focus includes environmental conditions (De Vos, Van Acker, & Witlox, 2016) and neighbor relationships (Amérigo & Aragones, 1997). However, previous studies tended to assess satisfaction separately, focusing only on one dimension.…”

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Exploring the importance of transportation infrastructure and accessibility to satisfaction with urban and suburban neighborhoods: An application of gradient boosting decision trees

“…Therefore, it is important to examine the influence of transportation and accessibility on residential neighborhood satisfaction. It is also important to recognize that other neighborhood features (such as social interaction and safety) affect neighborhood satisfaction as well (Cao and Zhang 2016;De Vos, Van Acker, and Witlox 2016;Yin et al 2016). Understanding the relative role of transportation and accessibility in enhancing neighborhood satisfaction is an intriguing matter.…”