Urban Environmental
Quality
INTRODUCTION
The quality of living environments is crucial for people's well-being.
Factors such as noise, heat, air pollution, and overcrowding can
negatively impact urban areas.
However, features such as good infrastructure, parks, and access to
healthcare and education can enhance quality of life.
Thus, urban environmental quality consists of both negative aspects
and positive attributes.
URBAN SETTINGS AS A SOURCE OF STRESS
AND DISCOMFORT
Cities attract many people because they offer fun
experiences, information, and opportunities for homes and
jobs.
However, they also have downsides, like traffic noise, poor
air quality, and overcrowding. These issues can cause
stress, health problems, negative feelings, trouble thinking
clearly, and less kindness towards others.
URBAN SETTINGS AS A SOURCE OF STRESS AND
DISCOMFORT
Cities can cause stress when For example,
people feel they can't handle the individuals who believe that the source
challenges around them. They
of urban noise is unimportant,
judge situations based on how
unnecessary, dangerous, and
serious, important, or likely they are
preventable experience higher levels of
to happen, as well as how much
annoyance than those with positive
control they have. These thoughts
attitudes towards the noise source.
can affect whether they find their
environment annoying or upsetting.
People often react negatively to city For instance,
environments because they feel In a busy city, some people feel energised by the
vibrant atmosphere, using the stimulation to boost
overwhelmed or too stimulated by
their creativity and motivation.
what's around them and in that
Conversely, others may feel overwhelmed by the
regard, arousal theories suggest that
noise and crowds, leading to anxiety that hinders
how well someone performs a task
their ability to focus or perform tasks. This highlights
can be greatly influenced by how how arousal theories suggest that individual
physically energised or excited they responses to environmental stimulation can
significantly affect performance.
feel.
The Yerkes–Dodson law from 1908 shows how
arousal (or excitement) affects performance,
forming an upside-down U shape. The best
performance happens at a moderate level of
arousal. If arousal is too low, people may get
bored; if too high, they may feel anxious.
Arousal affects how people respond to stress
from their environment. For instance, someone
in a busy city with high arousal might be more
negatively impacted by stress than someone
who is more relaxed.
For example,
two students preparing for an important exam. Student A feels a
moderate level of arousal—nervous but excited—which helps them
focus and leads to better performance on the exam. Student B,
however, experiences high arousal and becomes extremely anxious.
This anxiety distracts them, causing forgetfulness and panic during the
test. This example illustrates the Yerkes–Dodson law: moderate arousal
leads to better performance, while high arousal can hinder it.
For example,
In city environments, people often face
many different stressors at the same time, In a busy city, people face multiple
which can be overwhelming (Evans and stressors every day: crowded public
Cohen 1987). When we experience too transport, noisy traffic, tight work
many stressors, our brains have to work deadlines, and constant phone
hard all the time to manage them, which notifications. This overwhelming
keeps our stress levels high. Over time, environment forces the brain to work
this constant focus can wear us out and overtime, leading to mental exhaustion.
lead to mental tiredness, making it harder Over time, even simple decisions
for us to think clearly. become difficult, demonstrating how
constant stressors hinder clear
For example,
When people feel overwhelmed, they need
Sarah, a busy marketing manager,
coping strategies. A common reaction is
feels overwhelmed and develops
"tunnel vision," where they focus only on
tunnel vision, ignoring everything
what's important and ignore other things. If their
but work. When her neighbour
attention is drained, even small requests, like a
wants to chat, she declines, as even
neighbour wanting to chat, can feel too much. In small requests feel burdensome.
busy cities, stressful surroundings can make Seeking solitude from the city's
people seek privacy or solitude, leading to less stress, she withdraws from
socializing and reduced support from others. socialising, which limits her support
network and increases her isolation.
URBAN SETTINGS AS A SOURCE OF WELL‐BEING AND
RESTORATION
Urban settings can be sources of
stress and illness, but they also offer
opportunities for positive experiences
that enhance health and well-being.
For instance, pedestrian-friendly
design can promote enjoyable and
healthy walking.
Several other urban features, often also linked to
urban walkability, may support enjoyable daily
place experiences, such as greenery, nice views,
interesting stores and building fronts.
Well-maintained green spaces, like urban
parks and trees, enhance residents'
health and well-being. They convey care
for the area, promote a sense of safety,
and foster social interaction, which
strengthens social cohesion.
Urban areas can help improve mental well-being by
reducing stress and mental tiredness.
For example, a study in a Chicago neighbourhood
found that people living in areas with less greenery had
more trouble focusing and experienced more family
conflicts.
Besides parks, places like museums and churches can
also provide a refreshing experience, as they often
have comfortable conditions, such as good lighting,
enough space, and a peaceful atmosphere.
RESIDENTIAL SATISFACTION – A MULTICOMPONENT
CONCEPT
Residential satisfaction is how happy Residential satisfaction can be seen in:
people feel about living in a specific place, 1. Thoughts: Viewing the neighbourhood
such as their home or neighbourhood. as safe and convenient boosts
Researchers often ask people to rate their happiness.
satisfaction on a scale. 2. Actions: Participating in community
events reflects satisfaction. (festivals,
Although residential satisfaction is usually
fairs, circuses etc.)
seen as a single idea, it can also be
broken down into different parts: thoughts, 3. Feelings: Enjoying family time at home
creates joy. These elements shape
actions, and feelings about their living
overall satisfaction with living
situation.
situations.
A MULTIDIMENSIONAL APPROACH TO URBAN
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Researchers study residential For example,
satisfaction by collecting opinions on
PEQIs assess perceptions of air quality,
various neighborhood aspects, such
as safety and access to parks. Tools while PREQIs focus on service
like the perceived environmental availability and neighbourhood
quality indicators (PEQIs) by Craik aesthetics.
and Zube (1976) and the perceived
These tools have been proven effective
residential environment quality
indicators (PREQIs) by Fornara and in diverse cultural settings and offer
others (2010) help measure these insights into residential satisfaction.
views.
THE MULTI‐PLACE
APPROACH
Cities have different features based on areas like homes, neighbourhoods, city centres, and
suburbs.
For example, someone in a busy city centre may see their environment differently than someone
in a quiet suburb. Feelings about neighbourhood quality are often linked to experiences in these
various places.
Using the multi-place approach helps us understand this better by considering all the places
someone goes, like home and work, and how they affect feelings about the area.
For instance, enjoying a local park can lead to positive feelings about a neighbourhood, while a
stressful commute might create negative feelings.
Hartig and others (2003b) also noted that experiences outside the home—like visiting a gym or
café in another neighbourhood—can impact overall health and well-being.
Summary
We explored how both good and bad environmental factors influence urban
quality, using different research methods.
For example, it looks at how satisfied residents feel in their neighbourhoods, their
likelihood to move, and how they connect emotionally to their surroundings.
It underscores the importance of reliable assessment tools to measure these
factors.
Finally, it points out that to truly understand urban quality, we should consider how
people interact with various places in the city, like parks, shops, and residential
areas.
Environment and
Quality of Life
INTRODUCTION
Imagine a strict pro‐environmental program going on. Meat and fish
consumption is reduced to minimum, household energy use is severely
restricted and biodiverse areas are prohibited for people to enter. From
an ecological standpoint, this program would be considered sustainable,
as it helps the natural world to remain intact and long‐lasting.
However, such a stringent initiative would threaten human well‐being due
to drastic behavioural changes and reduced comfort.
Imagine a strict pro‐environmental program going on. Meat and fish
consumption is reduced to minimum, household energy use is severely
restricted and biodiverse areas are prohibited for people to enter. From
an ecological standpoint, this program would be considered sustainable,
as it helps the natural world to remain intact and long‐lasting.
However, such a stringent initiative would threaten human well‐being due
to drastic behavioural changes and reduced comfort.
Sustainability involves finding a balance between environmental, social and economic
sustainability aspects.
For example, consider an initiative to increase fuel prices in order to reduce CO2 emissions.
Consequences:
to give up their car
increase social inequity
Decrease in purchasing power due to cash flow to the fuel industry.
To achieve sustainable development, sustainability of any of the three aspects (environmental,
social, economic) should not seriously impede sustainability of the other two.
Quality of Life
Quality of life (QoL) is as a way to assess social
sustainability on the individual level.
We define QoL as the extent to which important needs and
values of individuals are satisfied (Diener 2000), which depends on
a person’s physical, economic, and social environments.
Quality of Life
For example, being surrounded by nature may enhance your health
or, a strong economy is more likely to satisfy people’s needs for work
and income than a weak economy. In a similar vein, being surrounded
by people helps satisfy one’s needs for social relationships.
Therefore, a considerable part of individual QoL depends on
environmental qualities.
QoL: OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE
MEASURES
To assess environmentally determined QoL, objective and subjective
measures can be used.
Objective measures describe how well environmental characteristics meet
the criteria that are believed to be necessary for a good life.
These measures consist of technological measurements and expert
judgements of environmental conditions (e.g. quality of tap water, sulphur
dioxide in the air), that can be assessed at societal or individual level.
QoL: OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE
MEASURES
Subjective measures based on individual perceptions.
Subjective measures allow studying how people appraise environmental characteristics and
how well they think environments satisfy their important needs and values.
For example, people can report how satisfied they are with their lives with regard to certain
circumstances or they express their positive or negative affect or their optimism or
pessimism with regard to various life aspects in their current situation.
To conclude, objective as well as subjective measures can be used to study individual
QoL and ideally they should complement each other.
