Abstract
It is often supposed that a local midsize city is one homogeneous area because it is divided by administrative boundary. But there are variuos areas in one city, so we should treat it as one set which comprises many heterogeneous areas (for instance CBD, residential zone, industrial park, agricultural zone, and forest zone). Therefore, there is so much remarkable difference especially in the condition of living environment.
I investigated three points concerning the quality of living environment based on inhabitants evaluation. First, How do inhabitants evaluate their living environment? Second, What logical structure exists behind thier evaluations? Last, How does the evaluation vary over space?
I got data by sending out a questionnaire to 13, 331 citizens directly via mail. In the questionnaire I asked “To what extent are you satisfied with your living environment?” I tried newly devised methods. I analized 500 m-mesh-data for all. I used hierarchical indices of various aspects of evaluation, which amount to 100 items. The investigation was carried out in a typical localmidsizecity “UTSUNOMIYA-SHI”, with an area of 312, 16 km and 430, 000 people. The result of analysis is summarized as follows.
(1) When we divide the overall evalation of living environment into two parts, (one is the evaluation of natural amenities and another is that of “accessibility”), it is mostly determined by the condition of accessibility.
(2) The evaluation of living environment can be explained by the function of the distance from city center.
(3) Decentralization of population decreases the overall evaluation of living environment.
(4) A new concept (I call it “Imaginability”) is necessary to evaluate living environment. That should be placed at same level as natural circumferential condition and accessibility condition.
(5) In Utsunomiya city the best place for residence might be located 2 km away from the city center.
