The Salzburg Quality of Urban Life Study with GIS Support

Abstract

The chapter describes a two-part study that uses household surveys and {GIS} technology to examine aspects of quality of urban life in Salzburg, Austria. In the first part, a 1-km2 test area of the city was selected and within it, 55 ha grid cells containing at least 30 residents were identified. For each grid cell, {GIS} data covering urban conditions were recorded. At the same time, face-to-face interviews were conducted with a sample of residents in each cell. Respondents were asked about their quality of urban life {(QOUL).} Findings indicate that a positive {QOUL} was associated with detached housing, low population density, greenery, friendly neighbors and a safe environment. The second part of the study extended the approach to six of Salzburg’s 24 districts where differences in subjective {QOUL} assessments are explored.. Again, {GIS} is used to test hypotheses relating to the impact of environmental factors on subjective assessments of {QOUL.}