Urban Economics and Planning

Urban Economics and Planning

Measuring the Social Indicators of the Quality of Urban Life with a Micro- Scale in Tabriz

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Ali Zeynali Azim 1
Bagher Rezai 2
Sonbol Farji 3
Maryam Rafizadeh 4
1 Postdoctoral student of Urban Design, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tarbiat Dabir Shahid Rajaei University, Tehran, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Kaleibar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kaleibar, Iran
3 PhD Candidate, Department of Architecture, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
4 PhD Candidate, Department of Architecture, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran
10.22034/uep.2023.390715.1341
Abstract
Introduction 
This article aims to create a proposal for urban social criteria to improve the quality of urban life, based on the review of various well-known indicators used at the international level, with a special focus on the way to increase the quality of life through work on urban and social factors and indicators. It is assumed that working on these factors and indicators at the micro-urban level may evoke people’s satisfaction with their city. In addition, to increase the rank of Iranian cities in international indexes. In terms of quality of life social indicators, among 163 countries, Iran ranks 93rd after Turkey. However, unfortunately, it has a low rank, which indicates the average quality of life of its residents the main problem related to the issue of measuring the quality of life in the current quality of life evaluations is that no study has been conducted to identify whether Tabriz performs poorly in all the mentioned determinants or only in a few of them. Another issue is that the current quality of life indicators is that they work at a macro level where they consider the quality of life in a region at a great scale. If evaluation tools work more on the development of urban micro-scale indicators instead of macro indicators, the quality of life of people in the city may increase. 
Materials and Methods
 This research has a descriptive-analytical approach that uses a descriptive qualitative approach to identify the primary factors and indicators that provide the quality of urban life. In addition to the analytical approach to analyze the urban and social indicators about contemporary indicators that have been included in many international case studies, eight international evaluation indicators were also considered for brief content analysis by reviewing the literature. This review focuses on the existing academic literature and appropriate practices for quality of life assessment worldwide. The selected frameworks and indicators were chosen because they can be applied for implementation at different levels of the city. While this list may not be exhaustive, it attempts to systematically record and review the latest international research and practice on this topic. Then, the factors of each of them are examined, followed by a detailed qualitative analysis of their cities, and social indicators are shown. Then a comparative analysis has been done in relation to the main factors of these indicators. This analysis aims to identify the importance of socio-urban factors as well as a set of socio-urban assessment criteria that can help urban dwellers in discovering possible basic areas of intervention that may increase the quality of urban life of people, which is inferred through criteria. In addition, a survey of experts using a questionnaire was applied to verify the proposed criteria and rank their importance using relative weights according to the city of Tabriz. Experts were asked to rate the importance and relevance of indicators that provide each of the primary measures of eight urban social factors. The results of the questionnaire are also provided. 
Findings
According to the experts’ survey about the city of Tabriz, Safety, mobility, and recreational facilities are in the first rank of needed interventions. In addition, focusing on basic criteria such as recreation requires more green and public spaces, however, if it is applied to a specific community, the results may change and be more specific to the specific needs of the community. One of the main obstacles to international indicators of quality of life is that even though they are promoted as international indicators, there is no common definition of what should be defined as an urban factor and what should be considered an objective or subjective indicator. Sometimes recreation is considered as a factor with a set of indicators, while in other cases it is considered as an index to measure other factors. Housing as a field also has the same problem. When it is raised under life and physical security, it is considered as one of the main factors in another index, which is compared with an objective index such as the number of newly built private residential units and average sales price or with subjective indicators reflecting the quality and variety of sizes. Furthermore, as the sub-indices are derived from international indices, they will have a direct impact on the city’s score. The proposed dimensions and principles of the quality of urban life were determined with the aim of guiding and helping public policymakers, urban planners, and designers to improve the quality of urban life in a region, considering the need to create a layer of context based on the goals and approaches needed. 
Conclusion
Quality of life is a comprehensive concept that cannot be separated from the physical environment, and it is more accurate to mention it under the title of quality of urban life. You must have a concept of flexibility that includes different goals and methods. The quality of urban life consists of two understandable dimensions, subjective and objective, each dimension deals with a different number of factors that vary from one index to another, yet they deal with almost the same issues. The objective dimension of quality of life is related to the economy, health, politics, and physical components of urbanization, while the subjective dimension focuses more on people’s perception and their acceptance of current conditions and their desire to create those conditions if the goal is to improve the quality of urban life. Therefore, it is important to deal with the urban challenges that communities are facing.
Keywords
Quality of Life
Quality of Urban Life
Social Index
Tabriz City
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 23 March 2023
  • Revise Date 22 May 2023
  • Accept Date 23 May 2023