Comparative Evaluation of Physical and Environmental Drivers Influencing Urban Quality of Life with Intervention Prioritization across Traditional and Planned Urban Fabrics

Babapour Vajari, Houda; Haghzad, Ameneh; Ramazanipour, Mehrdad; Ebrahimi, Leila; Bozorgmehr, Kia

doi:10.22034/ijumes.2026.2087138.1361

Comparative Evaluation of Physical and Environmental Drivers Influencing Urban Quality of Life with Intervention Prioritization across Traditional and Planned Urban Fabrics

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Houda Babapour Vajari

Ameneh Haghzad

Mehrdad Ramazanipour

Leila Ebrahimi

Kia Bozorgmehr

Department of Geography, Cha.C., Islamic Azad University, Chalus, Iran

10.22034/ijumes.2026.2087138.1361

Abstract

Physical-infrastructural performance and environmental quality are measurable, policy-actionable determinants of urban quality of life, yet urban decision-making often overlooks their relative priority and interdependence. This study compared these two dimensions of quality of life between a traditional organic urban fabric and a planned urban fabric in Rasht, Iran, and prioritized intervention dimensions using a network-based multi-criteria approach. A descriptive-analytical, mixed-methods design was applied in two neighborhoods, Saghrisazan and Manzarieh. A stratified sample of 377 residents completed a 20-item, five-point Likert questionnaire covering the physical-infrastructural and environmental dimensions. Independent-samples and one-sample t-tests, Pearson correlation, and multivariate analysis of variance compared neighborhoods; the Analytic Hierarchy Process and the Analytic Network Process, implemented in Super Decisions, derived priority weights while accounting for interdependencies between dimensions. The planned neighborhood scored significantly higher than the organic neighborhood on physical and environmental indicators. Both dimensions were significantly correlated with overall quality of life, led by the physical-infrastructural dimension, followed by the environmental dimension; urban fabric type had a significant combined effect on the two. In the network-based prioritization, the environmental dimension was assigned a narrowly higher weight than the physical-infrastructural dimension under both models, indicating near parity between the two dimensions rather than a decisive expert preference. Given this narrow margin and the stronger survey-based association of the physical-infrastructural dimension with overall quality of life, urban quality of life in Rasht is best understood as shaped jointly, and comparably, by physical-infrastructural and environmental conditions. Municipal strategies should pursue physical and environmental upgrading as similarly high priorities, including infrastructural renewal, green-space expansion, noise mitigation, and drainage rehabilitation, particularly in historic fabrics, while safeguarding existing environmental assets in planned areas.

Graphical Abstract

Comparative Evaluation of Physical and Environmental Drivers Influencing Urban Quality of Life with Intervention Prioritization across Traditional and Planned Urban Fabrics

Highlights

· Planned urban fabric shows substantially higher perceived physical-infrastructural and environmental quality than the traditional organic fabric.

· Both physical-infrastructural and environmental conditions are strongly associated with overall urban quality of life, with physical infrastructure showing the stronger association.

· AHP and ANP prioritization yields closely comparable weights for environmental and physical-infrastructural dimensions, indicating near parity between the two priorities.

· Strong inter-dimensional correlation suggests that physical-infrastructural and environmental conditions should be considered jointly in urban intervention planning.

· Environment-sensitive retrofitting in historic organic neighborhoods and protection of existing environmental assets in planned areas are identified as key intervention directions.

Keywords

Environmental quality

physical infrastructure

quality of life

traditional urban fabric

urban intervention prioritization

urban planning

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