TITLE:
Perceptions, Determinants and Residential Satisfaction from Urban Open Spaces
AUTHORS:
Evgenia Anastasiou, Stella Manika
KEYWORDS:
Residential Satisfaction, Urban Open Space, Bioclimatic Design, Factor Analysis, Hierarchical Clustering
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.8 No.6,
June
2,
2020
ABSTRACT: Quality
of life as a cross-disciplinary term is explored by the sciences of urban
planning and design, geography, and social sciences. The present paper: 1) investigates the factors of satisfaction of
visitors to the urban open space; 2) highlights
complex patterns of residents’ satisfaction from the contribution of a bioclimatic
renovation project in this area. For the needs of the present, field research
was conducted on the residents of a medium-sized Greek city. The urban open
space chosen presents a multi-functional character, consists pole of attraction
for visitors based on the variety of its uses, and encompasses a special cultural
and historical identity. The methodological approach is initially based on a
multi-criteria analysis (Factor Analysis) to capture the characteristics that
shape the disadvantages and dynamics of urban open space in order to obtain the
factors of residential satisfaction. Based on the evaluation of the
satisfaction factors (Principal Components), a hierarchical classification was
applied, exploring the main patterns of residential satisfaction regarding the
contribution of the bioclimatic regeneration project. The findings show that
residents’ satisfaction with urban open space is a function of five factors:
the overall operation of the open space, the quality of leisure facilities, the
contribution of the bioclimatic design of large scale project, the suitability
of infrastructure for children and respect for the cultural identity of the
place. The satisfaction based on the acceptance of the project of bioclimatic
regeneration showed that only one in four residents is satisfied with the
overall contribution of the project, while the vast majority of residents are
nonetheless dissatisfied. Finally, there emerge six profiles of residents, in
terms of their degree of satisfaction compared to the other interpretive
variables.