Urban liveability factors and neighbourhood quality: An empirical study of Ansariyeh neighbourhood, Zanjan city, Iran

The growth of urbanization and the desire of human populations to live in urban environments has provided the basis for the importance of quality of urban life, hence one of the most important goals of urban management is to achieve a suitable and sustainable quality of life for urban residents. Today, liveability has been expanded in most developed countries as a guiding principle in the framework of sustainability discourse in policies and urban planning. Ansariyeh neighbourhood of Zanjan City, Iran has a grid-iron layout with large blocks, which faces a per capita lack of green space. This neighbourhood, like most typical neighbourhoods in Zanjan City, is facing economic, social and environmental problems. In this research, an attempt has been made to evaluate liveability indicators and the level of residents' satisfaction with the quality of built environment to identify issues, causes of people's dissatisfaction, prioritization of citizens in their neighbourhood’s built environment and eventually evaluation of policies in the field of liveability. The research methodology employed in this study follows a descriptive-analytical approach. Spatial analysis was conducted using GIS software to generate maps representing the status of each objective indicator, while subjective indicators were evaluated through a structured questionnaire survey. The study sample comprised 370 participants. Based on the analysis, the overall liveability of the neighbourhood is average, with residents showing the highest satisfaction with environmental factors and the lowest with spatial ones. Moreover, when examining the four key factors influencing liveability; spatial, social, economic, and environmental, the social factor emerged as the most significant in shaping the liveability of the Ansariyeh neighbourhood. The results of this research show that the current policies and programs implemented at Ansariyeh neighbourhood have achieved relative satisfaction; in such a way that it has placed this neighbourhood in the state of average satisfaction from residents’ point of view. This study presents various practical recommendations in the form of policy, planning and design solutions for enhancing the liveability of Ansariyeh neighbourhood. The recommendations as well as methodological framework presented in this study can contribute to the future studies in the field of liveable urban neighbourhoods.

Keywords: Iran, liveable city, liveability, neighbourhood; urban neighbourhood; Zanjan.