The assessment of quality of life in peripheral urban areas in Lithuania

Abstract

After political changes and transformations, many large cities in Eastern Europe in the last decade are confronted with decline in population, privatization patterns, deterioration, raised the land prices, lower life satisfaction. In the point of macro level view this process is estimating as a controversial spatial flow. It changes the traditional urban structures and affects the successful social and economic development in cities and actually influences competitiveness in wider pan European scale. Future Orientation for Cities project (FOCI) implemented by the European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion (ESPON) 2013 Program, provided comparable information on territorial dynamics of European regions and main drivers of current urban sprawl. Quality of life is described as one of the main drivers of urban sprawl. In micro level it captures the decisions of individual actors in the urban system. The individuals construct a distinctive quality of life model. Such apparently multi-dimensional attitude encourages authors in finding ways how to establish objective criteria for a subjective assessment of the quality of life of city centre and peripheral community members. On the basis of FOCI project results and social research carried out in in the capital of Lithuania, the authors, regarding data obtained conducting a representative survey among permanent residents in Vilnius city, have made an attempt to assess the peripheral areas in Vilnius and to identify the indexes having an impact on a subjective evaluation of the quality of life.