An Analysis of Satisfaction of the Residential Environment and its Impact on Urban Shrinkage Case Study: Samen District of Mashhad City

The quality of housing and residential environment is one of the factors affecting the level of residence satisfaction. Dissatisfaction with the place of residence leads to the abandonment by residents and, if continued, cause the decrease of population. Urban Shrinkage is a long-term decline of the population in a neighborhood that commences to the decline of a city. This study specifically studies this issue in the Samen district of Mashhad. The district adjacent to the shrine of the eighth Imam, which has accompanied by a decline in population in recent years. The method is descriptive-analytic study and the main question of the research is assessing the quality and satisfaction of the residential environment and its effect on the liveliness and shrinkage of this district. For this purpose, collecting the required information has carried out using a questionnaire tool and completing it from the residents of the district. The sample size has 112 by using PASS software with 95% confidence level. Data collected using the conceptual model of the research and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results of this study showed that during the period of 1986-2016, 86.5% of the population of the region have exited that indicates the shrinkage of the district. The study of various factors in this field showed that the index of the characteristics of the neighborhood (including 9 variables) of 88% had the most effect on the region's exited. The Housing Property Index (including 4 variables) with 28%, and the attribute of the activity and economy (including 3 variables) with 17% in the following ranks.