Review article
https://doi.org/10.5673/sip.50.2.3
Life Quality in Urban Neighbourhood – Advantages and Drawbacks of Immediate Living Environment
Lana Slavuj
orcid.org/0000-0002-9440-5679
; Faculty of Science, Department of Geography, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
In the last few decades a number of projects and programs directed at improving urban quality
of life have been initiated. Their main aim is to systematically measure and evaluate trends
in the urban environment with a set of specific indicators relevant for the everyday quality
of people’s life. This paper deals with the quality of life in the selected neighbourhoods of
the city of Rijeka. The selected neighbourhoods are: Belveder/Brajda-Dolac, Pećine, Pehlin,
Orehovica and Pašac. The main research method was a questionnaire survey conducted in
August, 2010 on a systematic random sample of inhabitants older than 18. Three hundred
and sixty-five respondents participated in the questionnaire survey. In the first part of the
paper, overall experience of urban life quality is examined using neighbourhood satisfaction
as indicator. Neighbourhood is considered the most relevant scale on which to measure
urban quality of life because it represents the immediate living environment where most
daily activities take place. The second part of the paper analyses the respondents’ answers
about the major advantages and disadvantages of their neighbourhood, their suggestions
how to improve the neighbourhood life quality and their opinion about the direction
their neighbourhood life quality will take in the next five years. The comparison of city
neighbourhoods and the identification of problems and advantages of the examined city areas
can provide a solid information base for the citizens and local decisions makers about some
trends in the life quality of the selected neighbourhoods, as well as help develop new projects
and actions for their improvement.
Keywords
urban quality of life; projects for monitoring urban quality of life; neighbourhood satisfaction; neighbourhood advantages and disadvantages; city of Rijeka
Hrčak ID:
89170
URI
Publication date:
28.9.2012.
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