The Effects of Good Urban Governance on Improving the Quality of Life (Case study: Zone 1 of Shiraz city)

 Despite the importance of the subject in sustainable urban development, few studies have been carried out so far. In these papers, the condition of urban governance in the studied areas has been investigated and they found that there is a relationship between urban governance and quality of life, and the better the situation of good urban governance indicators, the better the quality of life in the studied area. Given the great importance of two subject areas of quality of life and good urban governance on the one hand and the crucial role of national conditions in local situations on the other hand, the association between these two is examined in the present study. The current study is aimed to analyze the effects of good urban governance on improving the quality of life of citizens in District 1 of Shiraz metropolitan. Considering the importance of the research subject, and because a few studies have been conducted in this field, in this article, the impacts of good urban governance on the improvement of the quality of life in District 1 of Shiraz city have been investigated in order to be effective on the planning for improving the quality of life of citizens.

This study is descriptive-analytical in terms of method. The statistical population consists of the residents of District 1 in Shiraz city. 384 questionnaires were randomly completed by individuals using Cochran's method. For data collection, a part of the work has been done theoretically: books, papers, thesis, researches and computer searches have been used to find articles and thesis from abroad. According to the objectives of the research and its nature, the impacts of good urban governance on improving the quality of urban life have been examined using a questionnaire. This research has a technical, practical and developmental nature and relies on field and statistical methods. Considering that the minimum relative content validity coefficient for 5 judges is equal to 0.99, because the value of this coefficient was calculated for all questions in the questionnaire greater than 0.99, it can be stated that the data collection measure of the current research has acceptable content validity. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the research checklist was calculated as 0.7. Hence, the research checklist has acceptable reliability, and finally, single-sample analysis and factor analysis were performed.

The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) test as a statistical measure is used to determine how suited data collected is for factor analysis. Kaiser (1977) determines the minimum KMO as 0.60, for indicating sufficient items for each factor, the value should be greater than 0.60. In this research, KMO coefficient is equal to 0.672. The factors obtained from exploratory factor analysis are about 5 items. The first factor, which is the most important one (participation), accounted for 23.01 % of the variance, and the second and third factors (transparency and accountability, efficiency and justice) have 13.60 and 10.56 % of the variance. This indicates that the first factor has a great impact on improving the quality of life of citizens in District 1 of Shiraz city. The third and subsequent factors that dedicated for less than 10% of the variance (rule of law and accountability) are much less important than the first factor. It is worth noting that, in total, 62.96% of the variance of the dimension of good urban governance is presented by these five factors, which can be effective because it is more than 60%. Given the lower and upper positive limits of all five factors and considering that the mean of all five factors is more than 3 tested cases, it can be said that good urban governance has a direct and significant impact on the quality of life.

 The results of the one-sample t-test showed that the indicators of good urban governance have a direct and significant impact on the quality of life. Also, we found that the variable of providing platform for the opportunity of public participation has the highest score among others. The factors obtained from the exploratory factor analysis include: the first factor - the most important factor- "participation", the second factor "transparency and accountability", the third factor "efficiency and justice", the fourth factor "rule of law" and the fifth factor "responsibility". In total, 62.96% of the variance of the dimension of good urban governance is presented by these five factors, which can be useful, as it is more than 60%. Based on the results of the research, there is a significant relationship between the indicators of urban governance and the improvement of the quality of life. It was found that the better the conditions of the sustainability of good urban governance and its relevant elements, the better the urban life quality.