Evaluation of Environmental Quality and Satisfaction of New Residential Settlements (Case Study: Tohid Shahr Sabzevar)

Introduction The rapid growth of cities and their structural development have caused various problems in urban life such as environmental problems and decline in the environmental quality. The quality of urban environment is a multidimensional concept. As one of the important aspects of life quality, it can have many effects in the life of residents. This concept can also have commonalities with other concepts like quality of the place, perception of residential satisfaction and dissatisfaction of residents from living places and so on. The importance of urban environment is for the fact that all urban problems have an environmental quality component. Therefore, the evaluation of urban environment quality and the satisfaction of residents are indispensable to recognize the environmental quality status and to perform procedures to improve it and present appropriate environmental quality patterns for new developments which are formed by preplanning and programming. Accordingly, Tovidshahr in Sabzevar has been selected as one of the preplanned environments and the quality of urban environment in this town has been evaluated. Methodology  This study is conducted as an applied and developmental research through a descriptive-analytic and survey-method. For collecting the required data, we have used questionnaires. The samples of the study have been selected from the residents of Tovhidshar in Sabzevar. They are ranged in 18-70 years old. Based on the Cochran sampling formula, the participants are 374 persons which explored individually. The random sampling method is used to identify the participants. The procedures like factor analysis and Pearson correlation coefficients are used for analysis of the data. In addition, GIS software is used for complementing the analysis and pictorially presenting the data.  Results and discussion    For doing factor analysis, at first the items were categorized into nine indexes and then they were subdivided into three dimensions of environmental quality (objective, subjective and objective-subjective) (objective) and then the factor analysis procedure was run. The values of KMO tests for objective, subjective and objective-subjective environmental quality were 0.789, 0.813 and 0.813, respectively. For exploring the satisfaction rate and the degree of environmental quality, at first the Pearson correlation coefficient was estimated among the variables. Based on the results obtained from the correlational matrix tables, we can state that there was a positive relationship among the variables. Factor analysis for residential quality in the subjective, objective and their mixture was conducted in three stages. In the final stage, all the indices were combined into nine categories.    Some factors have been able to account for the variables of the study. The factors are as following: The first factor, i.e., satisfaction with the spatial-physical structure, has aacounted for 6.872 % of variation; the second factor, i.e., feeling of satisfaction of living in the town, has 13.6 % of percent variation; the third factor, i.e., dissatisfaction with abnormal behaviors in the town, with 20.0%; the fourth factor, i.e., satisfaction with family relations and sense of community in the town, with 26.296%; the fifth factor, i.e., satisfaction with housing space, with 31.906%; the sixth factor, i.e., satisfaction with public transportation services, with 36.738%; the seventh factor, i.e., the extent of sense of belonging to the town, with 41.272%; the eight factor, i.e., satisfaction with the vision and nature of the town, with 45.268%; the ninth factor, i.e., satisfaction of security, with 48.495% and collectively the objective-subjective residential satisfaction with 48.495 % of variance.   The satisfaction rate from the viewpoints of Tovhidshahr residents based on the factor analysis revealed that objective dimension with the value of 56.97 is higher than the subjective satisfaction rate with 46.75 percent. In the combined indexes, the highest level of satisfaction refers to the physical and environmental index with 0.577 percent and the lowest rate is related to the social pathologies with 0.126 percent. In addition, based on the obtained map of environmental quality, the objective dimension has the lowest satisfaction rate with 2.73 percent value and the subjective dimension with 3.36 percent value. Generallythe objective-subjective quality has a moderate rate with 3.47 percent value.   Conclusion Satisfaction with life is a subject related to other issues like environmental quality. Since one of the objectives of urban planners is to enhance the satisfaction rate of residents regarding their living environment, the various dimensions must be considered to reach such an objective. Therefore, the environmental quality indexes, as introduction to the dimensions and various features in living environment, can be used to analyze the satisfaction of residents from their physical and social environment. The findings of the study indicate that the satisfaction has a moderate rate. In addition, it has been found that Tovhidshar, which is created by preplanning to account for the future overpopulation of Sabzevar, has not been able to attract the optimal satisfaction rate of the residents. Contrary to the common expectation, there is no direct relationship between the objective and subjective conditions. The satisfaction in the objective dimension is low and in the subjective it is higher. Consequently, the research hypotheses are not confirmed. In explaining the satisfaction rate of residents from their living condition, it can be stated that based on the field investigations, it was recognized that residents are unsatisfied with some influential features on the quality of urban environment or have problems in using these assets.   According to the theoretical principles and the findings of the study, it can be argued that the viewpoints towards the quality of urban environment in the frameworks of the subjective and objective views can present two different views of the quality of urban environment and the satisfaction rate. Therefore, adopting more practical and logical decisions for improving the quality of urban environment is impossible unless close relations with residents is established and their cooperation based on the principles of optimal urban government is sought about the quality of urban environment of their living condition. Finally, it is suggested that the residents must be consulted regarding the procedures which can improve the quality of their living environment and, thus, can in turn enhance their satisfaction rate.