Preface -- List of contributors -- Introduction -- 1. An overview of quality of urban life - Robert W. Marans, Robert Stimson -- Part I: Approaches to the study of quality of life and quality of urban life -- 2. Objective measurement of quality of life using secondary data analysis - Robert Stimson, Robert W. Marans -- 3. Subjective measurement of quality of life using primary data collection and the analysis of survey data - Rod McCrea, Robert W. Marans, Robert Stimson, John Western -- 4.The evolution of integrative approaches to the analysis of quality of urban life - Rod McCrea, Robert Stimson, Robert W. Marans -- Part II: Empirical studies of the objective measurement of quality of urban life -- 5. Amenities, quality of life and regional development - Gordon Mulligan, John Carruthers -- 6. Variations in objective quality of urban life across a city region: The case of Phoenix - Subhrajit Guhathakurta, Ying Cao -- Part III: Empirical studies of the subjective assessment of quality of urban life illustrated by a selection of case studies -- 7. The quality of life in metro Detroit at the beginning of the millennium - Robert W. Marans, Byoung-Suk Kweon -- 8. The Brisbane-South East Queensland region, Australia: Subjective assessment of quality of urban life and changes over time - Robert Stimson, Rod McCrea, John Western -- 9. Measuring quality of urban life in Istanbul - Handan Türkoğlu, Fulin Bölen, Perver Korça Baran, Fatih Terzi -- 10. The quality of urban life and neighbourhood satisfaction in Famagusta, Northern Cyprus - Derya Oktay, Ahmet Rustemli -- 11. The quality of life in Dhaka, Bangladesh: Neighbourhood quality as a major component of residential satisfaction - Abul Mukim Mozammel Haque Mridha, Gary Moore -- 12. The Salzburg quality of urban life study with GIS support - Alexander G. Keul, Thomas Prinz -- 13. Subjective quality of life in Queensland: Comparing metropolitan, regional, and rural areas - Rod McCrea, Mark Western, Tung-Kai Shyy -- 14. Comparing urban and rural quality of life in the State of Washington - Benjamin Messer, Don Dillman -- Part IV: Innovations in modelling quality of urban life data -- 15. Modelling determinants of subjective QOUL at different geographic scales: The case of the Brisbane-SEQ region” - Rod McCrea, John Western, and Robert Stimson -- 16. Disaggregating the measurement of quality of urban life dimensions across a complex metro region: the case of Metro Detroit - Byung-Suk Kweon, Robert W. Marans -- 17. A spatial clustering approach analysing types of objective quality of urban life using spatial data for survey respondents: South-East Queensland, Australia - Rod McCrea -- 18. Using GIS to derive region-wide patterns of quality of urban life dimensions: Illustrated with data from the Brisbane-SEQ region - Prem Chhetri, Robert Stimson, John Western -- The way forward -- 19. Challenges for quality of urban life research - Robert W. Marans, Robert Stimson.

This volume synthesizes past and current, international research on the quality of urban life. It emphasizes the contributions of the urban environment to the overall well-being of residents living in urban areas ranging in scale from small cities and their hinterlands to metropolitan regions. The term urban environment refers to the socio-physical aspects of urban living ranging from individual dwellings and neighborhoods to public services (i.e. transportation, rubbish collection, etc.) to neighbors and community organizations. The work emphasizes not only perceptions of and behaviors within urban environments but the actual conditions to which individuals are responding. The research covers both the subjective and behavioral aspects of urban living as well as the objective conditions which drive them. Drawing on collaborative research with a broad group of researchers in a variety of settings around the world, the book incorporates theoretical and methodological approaches to the conceptualizing and measuring of quality of life. It covers research designs that are based on both the analysis and modeling of aggregate secondary data and on the collection, analysis and modeling of primary survey data on subjective urban quality of life.