Evaluacija kvalitete urbanoga susjedstva - Prednosti i nedostaci neposrednoga životnog prostora

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.