Assessment of factors affecting residents' perception of neighborhood environmental qualities (Case Study: Golshahr and Parvaz regions in Tabriz)

Existing experience suggests that the perceptual environment of citizens plays an essential role in the perception of the quality of urban environments. Given the wide variations in urban life, in particular urban life in Tabriz as a metropolis, it is particularly important to recognize the quality of urban and neighborhood environment. Therefore, Golshahr and Parvaz neighborhoods are considered as newly designed neighborhoods (less than 30 years old) with appropriate architectural and urban spaces and a high level of facilities and services. This paper presents an instrument for measuring perceived residential environment quality in urban environments. This instrument consists of 11 scales categorized into four criteria including spatial aspects, human aspects, functional aspects, and contextual aspects. The spatial aspects include three scales: architectural-planning space, organization and accessibility of roads, and green space. The human aspects involve one scale: people and social relations. Functional aspects include four scales: welfare, recreational, commercial, and transport services. Contextual aspects cover three scales: pace of life, environmental health, and upkeep. The paper aims to identify and measure perceived residential environment quality and improve the related psychometric qualities. Cognitive psychology is the conceptual framework of this research that focuses on environmental perception. This paper attempts to answer the following questions: 1- What level is the residents’ perceived quality of Tabriz neighborhoods (Golshahr and Parvaz regions)? 2- What factors affact residents’ perceived quality of Tabriz neighborhoods? The research method is descriptive-experimental and the data collection instrument is a questionnaire including 11 scales based on different dimensions of the research variables. The questionnaire comprised of 62 questions in the form of a five-point Likert scale. It was clustery distributed among 250 residents of Golshahr and Parvaz regions in Tabriz. The data was analyzed using the one-sample t-test, paired comparison, multiple regression analysis and path model analysis in SPSS software. Results confirm the factorial structure of the scale and indicate that, among the individual factors, sex and ownership affect the residents’ perceived quality of the neighborhood. Among the four main components, the social and then contextual components have a greater impact on the perceived quality of the neighborhood, while these two dimensions have the lowest score among the inhabitants of the neighborhoods. Among the scales, the green space scale from spatial aspect, discretion and civility from the human aspect, transportation services from the functional aspect, and upkeep and maintenance from the contextual aspect have the highest impact on the residents’ perceived quality of the neighborhood. Thus, the impact on the perceived quality of neighborhood increases when moving from the physical to the social-psychological-mental space, but the emphasis of the decisions of urban planners are more on the spatial and functional dimensions. Another interesting result is that, in addition to the social dimension, attention should be paid to the contextual dimension of the neighborhoods in order to promote inhabitants’ perceived quality of the neighborhood.