Urban Living Area Satisfaction And Public Preference

Abstract

The aim of the present study, which was carried out in three different cities of Turkey (Erzurum, Artvin, Tokat), is to determine satisfaction degree of urban people with the environment they live and to bring about their demands and biases for their living environs. The study includes totally 300 questionnaires conducted over subjects from each city. As the consequence of the study it was found that people in Erzurum and Tokat are satisfied with the urban environment they live (59.0 % and 64.0% respectively) whereas those in Artvin are not (69%). Among the living area types people prefer, if they are given adequate time and money, are coastal areas in the first row (M: 6.64), which are followed by the areas near water surfaces, lakes and river banks.

While people generally prefer residential areas in the cities far from the centres (M: 5.79) the most, they prefer the areas again far from centres and close to parks and green sites in the second row (M: 5.64). it was concluded from the study that regardless of their income, education, age, gender, and occupation, urban people tend to prefer natural areas by escaping from the stresses in urban areas (e.g. dense urbanisation, traffic, pollution, population density, psychological stress and lack of green areas).