The relationship between urban built environment and happiness in Bhopal, India

Happiness is a tool that can contribute towards the betterment of mental illness and is often linked to the well-being of a place. As per the study, nearly five per cent of Indians have a mental illness, with one in every five requiring psychiatric counselling. The tangible built environment and intangible components significantly affect human happiness. The question arises is whether and to what extent do these components of the urban environment affect happiness. The present paper examines the association between the urban built environment and the happiness of a city, taking Bhopal (a fast-growing metropolis in India with a population of 1.79 million according to the 2011 census) as a case study. Based on available data, seven parameters have been selected under urban built environment, the tangible–the ‘body’ characteristics (public transport, open space, air quality, vegetation index, air pollution, slum, safety and security, and population density), and happiness, the intangible ‘soul’, which has been studied via sentiment analysis using Twitter data. The focus of this paper, thus, shifts the focus from the relationship between happiness and socioeconomic factors to a broader understanding of the association between seven ‘body’ variables and their relationship with the intangible ‘soul’. It attempts to establish these relation characteristics using regression analysis. The findings suggest that security fears, distance from open spaces, and distance from slums are among the major determinants of happiness. A sense of positivity is also evident among the people living in high-density areas. The present research can help policymakers to understand citizens’ sentiments and integrate these with urban development initiatives for the built environment, building a happy city.