A multi-criteria approach to assessing the quality of the urban environment

Abstract

It is known that currently one of the most significant challenges in the field of construction and housing and communal services, is to improve the comfort and affordability of housing, to improve the quality of urban environment. This is also evidenced by the relationship between strategic plans for the period up to 2030 and the activities of the national project “Housing and Urban Environment”. This article analyses the level of citizens’ life quality of the Russian Federation in urban agglomerations and approaches to its assessment. In the framework of the study it has been revealed that nowadays the main indicator for assessing the quality of life is the index of urban environment quality, which consists of 6 indicators assessed according to 6 criteria. The authors decided to also consider the main environmental and economic indicator, expressed as an assessment of damage from environmental pollution, which includes 4 components. Preliminary the results of the conducted research determine the necessity of identifying the most significant criteria (and their sub-criteria) in order to develop an integrated approach to their assessment. As a comprehensive approach, the authors propose a multi-criteria evaluation methodology that includes expert opinion and consideration of weighting coefficients depending on the importance of a particular criterion. Within the framework of this article, the authors propose to test the proposed multi-criteria approach on the most significant space - housing and the surrounding area. The obtained results influence the positive decision to conduct further research for all the spaces included in the current methodology of the urban environment quality index assessment.