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Perceived environmental quality as an input to urban infill policy-making

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Abstract

Urban infill policy has only seldom been critically evaluated from the point of view of inhabitants. In this article, we ask how the perceived quality of the living environment by the inhabitants is connected to the structural characteristics of urban settings, namely, the building density and the amount of green space. What are the personally meaningful ‘quality factors’ of the inhabitants, where they locate, how accessible they are and how do the structural characteristics of urban settings affect them? A social science approach and especially the theories of environmental psychology, is applied in a series of empirical studies of four Finnish urban environments around the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Representing varying degrees of density, we studied the experiences of over 1500 inhabitants. To study the perceived locality-based environmental quality, we developed a GIS-based query method, softGIS, to collect the place-based meanings that inhabitants attach to their environment. The methodology allows for the simultaneous analysis of the localized experiences of inhabitants and the urban structure characteristics of individual home zones. Our findings revealed significant associations with urban structure variables, the perceived quality of environment and inhabitants’ health and well-being. We conclude that, without attempts to define the experiential quality of urban settings, urban infill policy cannot be successful.

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Notes

  1. nKerava=418; nJärvenpää=427; nNurmijärvi=380 and nMäntsälä=317; total=1542 inhabitants.

  2. The list of 37 quality criteria was developed based on findings in the Järvenpää study and they appeared in the application in random order.

  3. The actualization of the positive quality factors=mean actualization (scores between 0 and 5) of the positive quality factors. Note: the contents of the quality factors vary for each individual because each respondent was able to name three (in Järvenpää) or between one and five quality factors (in the other three towns) that are personally meaningful for them.

  4. Note: All the scores were not used in every town.

  5. The perceived quality of environment is a sum variable that was calculated in the following way: Quality index=mean actualization of the positive quality factors−mean actualization of the negative quality factors. The quality index scores min −5 and max 5. Note: the contents of affordances vary for each individual because each respondent was able to name from 1 to 5 affordances that are personally meaningful for them.

  6. The boundary value of Y-axis represents the dense enough urban structure of ecologically sustainable urban environment. This threshold has not been defined in Finland. We used here, therefore, the average density level, 20 housing units/ha of new urban neighbourhoods reported by Gordon and Vipond (2005). It also represents the urban structure recommendation for the usability of public transportation in the United States.

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Acknowledgements

The research reported in this article started in a research project called ‘Policies of infill development and quality of living environment’, financed by the Finnish Ministry of the Environment. The final study was supported by the collaborative OPUS research project at Helsinki University of Technology, financed by the National Technology Agency of Finland. All four cities also contributed to the financing of the research. The authors are very grateful to all the financers and the research teams of the two projects.

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  1. Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, School of Science and Technology, Aalto University, PO Box 12200, Aalto, 00076, Finland

    Marketta Kyttä, Maarit Kahila & Anna Broberg

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  1. Marketta Kyttä
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  2. Maarit Kahila
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  3. Anna Broberg
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Correspondence to Marketta Kyttä.

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Kyttä, M., Kahila, M. & Broberg, A. Perceived environmental quality as an input to urban infill policy-making. Urban Des Int 16, 19–35 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/udi.2010.19

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