Analysis of the spatial pattern of urban quality of life in Tabriz city using TOPSIS-DANP

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Public and Urban Management, Faculty of Management and Accounting Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Master’s degree in Urban Planning, Department of Urban Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Art, Tehran, Iran.
3 Master of Urban Design, Department of Urban Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran,
Abstract
Assessing the quality of urban life is crucial for city planning, but there is a spatial information gap in detailed spatial analyses of urban areas. For this purpose, quality of life has always been introduced with social and economic dimensions, but in this study, attention has been paid to examining quality of life based on spatial indicators. This study bridges this gap for the city of Tabriz by assessing spatial patterns of quality of life in different neighborhoods through an innovative integration of the multi-criteria TOPSIS-DANP technique with Moran's I spatial autocorrelation analysis. Accordingly, a composite index was constructed using 15 built environment, socio-economic and environmental indicators such as green space, education, health and air quality. TOPSIS-DANP ranking and weighting were carried out taking into account the opinions of experts, based on which the indicators of per capita urban facilities and equipment (0.0851) and per capita sanitary land use (0.0842) have the highest value and distance from fault (0.0426) and building density (0.0401) have the lowest weight. In addition, using Moran's I test, statistically significant clustering of quality of life scores was identified, indicating the existence of significant intra-urban inequalities in terms of access to services, infrastructure, and environmental quality between neighborhoods. The resulting analyses identified areas with high and low scores and revealed policy interventions to improve quality of life. Finally, the findings of this paper indicate that the integrated spatial analysis approach provides a comprehensive insight into quality of life patterns at the neighborhood level of Tabriz. On this basis, areas lacking green space and a healthy environment were identified as the most important priority for improving the sustainable standard of urban life.

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