Exploring the physical-environmental domains of quality of life; the experience of midsize cities in Iran

Quality of life (QOL) is a concept that has a long history among a variety of disciplines such as geography, social sciences, health, and urban planning. The urban QOL that emphasizes on urban aspects of this phenomenon has been discussed recently in various urban studies. The aims of this article are finding the subjective domains of physical and environmental quality of life (PEQOL), to survey life satisfaction, and to determine the most important domains that explain variances in life satisfaction in midsize cities in Iran. For this purpose, three midsize cities of Qazvin, Kashan, and Gorgan were selected as case studies. Stratified random sampling technique, using Neyman`s Allocation Method was applied to determine the required sample size. Individual interviews were conducted to gather the needed data and 1078 questionnaires were completed using 27 preselected indicators. Exploratory factor analysis was applied to extract the PEQOL domains. The results of the exploratory factor analysis indicate that five environmental, access to educational land uses, access to services, transportation, and housing domains can be introduced as PEQOL domains. Environmental factor had the most important role in description of PEQOL, while the housing domain had the least effect on the PEQOL.Stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the most important domains that explain life satisfaction. In Qazvin and Kashan cities, four domains of access to educational land uses, access to services, transportation and housing explained life satisfaction. In Gorgan city, three domains of environmental, transportation, and housing explained life satisfaction. It means that although environmental domain is the most important domain in explaining PEQOL, we could not find any meaningful relationship between satisfaction and environmental domain in two of three cities studied. In the overall regression model, all five domains of PEQOL have role in life satisfaction and they explained about 12.5% of total variance. It indicates that urban planners should pay a special attention to this issue in their plans to improve the environmental quality and increasing environmental satisfaction. Findings could also be useful in evaluating PEQOL and life satisfaction to facilitate the implementation of QOL policies in cities.