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- Do we live where it is pleasant?: correlates of perceived pleasantness with socioeconomic variablesPublication . Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Carrilho, Ana Clara; Sousa, Nuno; Oliveira, Leise Kelli; Jesus, Eduardo Natividade; Rodrigues, João CoutinhoLiving in urban areas is the wish of many people. However, with population growth in those areas, quality of life has become a concerning element for achieving sustainable cities. Because quality of life is influenced by the built environment, the state of the latter is a fundamental issue for public policies. This research expands on previous research on the perceived pleasantness of built environments by presenting a large-scale case study of the urban layout pleasantness in the central area of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, a typical global south city, and correlating pleasantness scores with socioeconomic factors to understand whether people do in fact live where the urban layout is more pleasant and how pleasantness and socioeconomic factors relate and contribute to one’s choice of living location. A comparison with the city of Coimbra, Portugal, representative of the global north, was also carried out. The findings showed that pleasantness tended to correlate negatively with urban density and positively with income. Possible explanations for these results and their generality are advanced.
- The impact of geometric and land use elements on the perceived pleasantness of urban layoutsPublication . Sousa, Nuno; Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Jesus, Eduardo Natividade; Coutinho, JoãoThis article presents a model to estimate the impact of geometric and land use elements on citizens’ perception of urban layout pleasantness. An ordinal regression cumulative link mixed model with those elements as regressors is proposed and calibrated using data from an online survey. Results show that landscape building height and density of green areas are the factors that most impact the perception of pleasantness. Based on the model, a methodology to derive pleasantness mean scores for a city is also proposed and applied to a case study. The methodology allows for benchmarking the pleasantness of different cities or comparing neighborhoods within a city. It can be used both as an urban evaluation tool and a decision-aid for city expansion programs.
- Do people adapt to where they live?: a comparative analysis of perceived physical urban pleasantness using a quantitative modelPublication . Medina Monteiro, João Pedro; Sousa, Nuno; Natividade-Jesus, Eduardo; Coutinho-Rodrigues, João; Oliveira, Leise Kelli; Santos, Patrícia da SilvaThis article examines the question of whether people perceive their own urban environment more favourably than people from other urban environments, i.e., whether residents, in a sense, adapt to where they live. To analyse this question, a quantitative statistical model that uses geometric and land use elements was applied to a case study of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, to estimate the perception of physical pleasantness of the urban environment using two calibrations: a global one and one obtained from a survey carried out in Belo Horizonte. The article then contrasts findings specific to Belo Horizonte with global perceptions, highlighting that local residents tend to evaluate their city's geometry and land use more positively than a worldwide audience. This difference suggests that familiarity and acclimatisation to the urban environment can significantly influence residents’ perceptions of their physical living environment.