The Role of Environmental Indicators in Improving the Quality of Urban Life in the City of Baghdad–A Comparative Study

The growing interest in concepts such as quality of life, environmental quality and indicators of urban life, has become a feature of contemporary urban communities. Quality of life is a concept that has multiple dimensions and components. Sustainable development ultimately aims at achieving a better quality of life, for present and future generations as a supreme goal. Therefore, enhancing the urban quality of life require the integration of the social, economic, physical and environmental domains in order to maintain a healthy and livable environment. Hence, the present research will focus on the role of the environmental indicators in improving the urban quality of life. The research aims at coming up with measuring the indicators-objective and subjective-to assess the level of the quality of urban life in Baghdad city via the indicators of the urban environmental quality. This has been carried out by identifying the contrasted spatial dimensions of the city for the purpose of making a comparison between the two urban models under investigation, namely, Al-Muthana district and Al-Sadr district. The research has required carrying out field surveys that are needed to collect data by adopting a proposed questionnaire for residents, using face-to-face interviews as well as collecting information from second sources. The research has adopted the descriptive analysis approach and comparative quantitative analysis depending on some appropriate methods and tools of statistical analysis. The research has concluded that the urban environmental quality indicators are substantially different in the two areas under study in favor of Al-Muthana district area, and they are associated with the perceived quality of urban life.