Helena Merschdorf

Quality of Urban Life: a Gis-based Analysis of the Subjective and Objective Quality of Urban Life in Salzburg, Austria Helena Merschdorf

This research examines the case study area of Salzburg, Austria in terms of its Quality of Urban Life for two dimensions, namely the objective dimension and the subjective dimension. The subjective dimension is analysed based on N=802 interviews conducted with the local citizens all over the city, while the objective data comprises coverage data and point data indicating facilities. Initially, five quality of life indicators of both the objective and subjective dimension are chosen and spatially mapped to 250m raster cells. These indicators are ?Green Spaces?, ?Housing Satisfaction?, ?Proximity to Public Facilities?, ?Proximity to Educational Establishments? and ?Proximity to Public Transport Stops?. Subsequently the AHP method is utilized to derive weights for each indicator and produce overall quality of life maps for both dimensions, in order to answer the research question ?do the objective quality of life indicators significantly predict their subjective counterparts, and are the subjective perceptions in themselves coherent??