Measuring Quality of Urban Life in Tehran Metropolitan

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran

2 Associate Professor, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Art, Tehran

3 Ph.D Candidate of Urban & Regioanal Planning, Faculty of Urban Planning, University Collage of Fine Arts, University of Tehran

4 M.A of Urban & Regioanal Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Iran University of Science & Technology, Tehran.

5 M.A of Social development, Faculty Social Science, University of Tehran, Tehran

Abstract

The main goal of the development plans is to create livable environment, better quality of life and residential satisfaction. Thus, the city managers desire to achieve this goal and plan a livable city for the people through the strategies, policies and intra-organizational programs, as well as making interaction with other influential administrations on the development of the city. As well as the urban development plans, the programs of the governmental and private organizations which somehow targeting the urban society, influence the quality of the people`s life. Quality of life can be conceptualized as an overallmeasure or as a measure based on experiences in a variety of domains, such that the greater the satisfaction withvarious life domains, including personal health, consuming, work, family and leisure, the greater the satisfactionwith life in general. Economic, subjective and social indices can all shed light on a society’s quality of life, as well as on how specific factors influence well-being.QOL consists of two distinct global concepts with underlying domains: perceived QOL andthe environmental QOL. Perceived QOL domains includessatisfaction with family life, friends, health, partner and oneself . The environmental QOL domains include satisfaction with housing, schools, health services,safety and security, roads and transport and jobs.Thus Measuring Quality of Life and analyzing the determinants of the differences in Qol between cities, neighborhoods and households is extremely important to provide inputs for policy action and to help determine priorities and actions for urban infrastructure and other interventions. Therefore, evaluating the quality of Urban life in Tehran, being affected from many factors, for instance what the city managers and governmental and public organizations done, would be very crucial and could provide a framework to make a road map for the city managers to survey the existing situation and move toward the ideal situation. The main goals of this research are as: defining the indicators and measures for surveying the quality of life and measuring the quality of life in Tehran. According to the subjective approach of the evaluation, the research method is based on the survey method which applies questionnaires to collect data. To analyze the data, various statistical methods have been applied, e.g. factor analysis and regression analysis methods. During the process of the evaluating the quality of life in Tehran, different results have been achieved. The literature review of the study results in defining the theoretical framework and conceptual model of the research, as well as documenting more than 90 quality of life indicators from the academic researches, the experiences of other cities and the research of the international organizations. In the next sections, based on localized indicators, the data from 114 quarters of Tehran has been collected through 12000 questionnaires and then analyzed by the mentioned methods. The findings of the research reveals that the quality of life in Tehran consists of 19 key factors. Specifying the areas which have to be intervened and prioritizing the interventions according to the 114 quarters of the city of Tehran are the other important findings of the research.
 

Keywords


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