Understanding the perceptual-social dimension of urban quality: A framework for assessment and improvement

What is it about?

People today, with the dynamism of places that continue to renew, strive to familiarize themselves with recent values that may have separated from their character and culture due to the great focus on the physical dimensions of place and the neglect of the real experience of human and the perceptual view of the city. Therefore, understanding the requirements for achieving urban quality and the spatial dimensions that affect it is necessary to work together to improve the quality of urban city environments. The studies presented general dimensions of urban characteristics inside the system of comprehensive assessment indicators and spatial dimensions associated with and realizing it, such as perceptual, social, formal, functional, visual, aesthetic, sensory, morphological, and temporal dimensions. The importance of people’s social - psychological attachment to places has been clarified and emphasized by determining and evaluating the quality of the place and the connection of urban quality mainly to people’s perception and sense of place. Accordingly, the research problem was defined as "the absence of a clear vision of a theoretical framework for the spatial-social-perceptual dimension of urban quality." To solve the research problem, a theoretical framework was built based on its extracted terms from a questionnaire of the resident’s opinions for the three projects within three different governorates of Iraq. The results of the questionnaire showed high residential satisfaction in general, and the effectiveness terms of the perceptual-social dimension of the urban quality related to the Sense of place factors represented by the cognitive-physical, functional-behavioral, and emotional factors, compared to the sense of place levels represented by indifference towards the place, knowing the presence in the place, the place affiliation, fondness to the place, defining the goals of the place, participating in the place, and sacrificing for the place.

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