Developing a Framework of Indicator System for Measurement of Urban Environmental Quality A Case Study From Tehran

Rafieian, Mojtaba; Shieh, Esmaile; Sharifi, Ayoobb

Developing a Framework of Indicator System for Measurement of Urban Environmental Quality A Case Study From Tehran

Document Type : Original Articles

Authors

¹ Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Tarbiat Modares University

² Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Planning and Architecture, University of Science and Technology

³ PhD Candidate, Department of Architecture and Environmental Engineer, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Japan

Abstract

Cities are complex and dynamic entities which are the main habitat of mankind. Nowadays cities are facing various challenges that threaten their quality and consequently that of urban residential areas. Developing relevant indicators is a vital step toward assessing these environments’ quality and can led to better decision making. The aim of this paper is to develop a tool comprising relevant indicators and to assess their relative importance for measuring the environmental quality of dwellings and urban neighborhoods. Impetus for the research was a need to inform planning and policy decisions in the Tehran metropolitan area. Residents of two Tehran neighborhoods participated in this study. During interviews, respondents were presented with five tasks: an inventory task, an importance selection task, a grouping task, a ranking and rating task for groups of attributes, and finally, a ranking and rating task for attributes within each group. After acquiring the needed data, attribute weights were calculated using four weight estimation methods. Next, the effects of neighborhood, sex, and age on the observed differences in attribute weights were examined, and a Comparison between the methods of attributes weight calculation was conducted. Based on two cluster solution methods, attributes were assigned to different clusters. These resulting clusters were then used to design the empirical model of urban environmental quality. In the end, after comparing the results of current study with those of previous studies, some amendments are suggested to be incorporated in revision of Iranian urban planning process, and some implications are presented for urban development policy.

Keywords