Linking sustainability and happiness. What kind of happiness?

By František Petrovič and František Murgaš 

Sustainability is part of the scientific mainstream; in the following paper we connect it with the phenomenon of happiness, which is becoming a discussed concept not only among researchers but also amongst public. This is due to the fact that today’s society has become a consumer society. This knowledge has provoked criticism of the prevailing lifestyle. The unprecedented growth of prosperity in the second half of the last century and at the beginning of the 21st century was achieved at the cost of environmental devastation. This presented the urgent question of how to improve the quality of life or bring happiness to a growing number of people. At the same time, efforts to replace GDP as a general measure of development with quality of life began to grow. In connection with happiness, it is important that it is defined in two ways: hedonic or eudaimonic. The aim of the paper is to find out which form of happiness is sustainable on the basis of the analysis of relevant works. Happiness is understood as part of the subjective dimension of quality of life, it represents the highest level of well-being. The combination of sustainability and quality of life or happiness is not new, some authors consider quality of life as the fourth pillar of sustainability. 

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More about sustainability:

Urban travel characteristics in relation with jobs-housing balance and accessibility: results of a survey in Lahore, Pakistan

Monitoring Urban Sprawl and Sustainable Urban Development Using the Moran Index: A Case Study of Stellenbosch, South Africa

Urban Sustainability and Resilience: From Theory to Practice

DESIGNING THE HEALTHY NEIGHBORHOOD: DERIVING PRINCIPLES FROM THE EVIDENCE BASE

Measuring Neighborhood Quality of Life: Placed-Based Sustainability Indicators in Freiburg, Germany

Walking and Transit Use Behavior in Walkable Urban Neighborhoods

Children’s Travel to School and their Body Weight; Results of a Survey in Seven European Countries: Technical Report

Children’s Independent Mobility to School in Seven European Countries: A Multinomial Logit Model

 By Houshmand Masoumi, Martin van Rooijen, and Grzegorz Sierpiński

The determinants of children’s independent school mobility and the contextual discrepancies between these determinants have not been comprehensively investigated in previous studies. It is important to examine these determinants because independent school mobility is associated with children’s physical activity, according to the literature. This paper examined the associations of different groups of variables such as household, mobility, perceptions, and the built environment with independent school mobility of children between 9 and 12 years using a sample of 1304 girls (50.9%) and boys (49.1%) in seven European countries. The sample was analyzed by Multinomial Logistic Regression, Chi-square test of independence, and Proportional Reduction in Error methods. According to the findings, father’s and mother’s commute mode choice, child’s mode choice of commute to school, child’s bike ownership, parent’s perception of safety, parent’s evaluation of bike lane and sidewalk quality, child’s commute distance, number of driving licenses in the household, accessibility of public transport, and population density in the neighborhood and around the school proved to be very strong and significant determinants of children’s independent school mobility in the Europe-wide sample. The comparison of the levels of independent school mobility did not show any significant differences between high-income countries such as Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, and emerging economies and developing countries like Poland, Greece, Turkey, and Croatia. However, a direct comparison between Poland (emerging economy) (33.6%) and the Netherlands (high-income) (31.7%) revealed significant differences in the level of independent school mobility. This study found the motives for this discrepancy due to the significant difference in bike ownership, the number of household members working outside the house, household size, commute distances of parents, and driving license possession.

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More about sustainable transportation

Urban Sprawl, Socioeconomic Features, and Travel Patterns in Middle East Countries: A Case Study in Iran

The Relationship between Regular Use of Ridesourcing and Frequency of Public Transport Use in the MENA Region (Tehran and Cairo)

Correlations of Urban Sprawl with Transport Patterns and Socioeconomics of University Students in Cracow, Poland

The Association between Regular Use of Ridesourcing and Walking Mode Choice in Cairo and Tehran

Urban travel characteristics in relation with jobs-housing balance and accessibility: results of a survey in Lahore, Pakistan

Polycentricity in a developing world: A micro-regional analysis for morphological polycentricity in Turkey

By N. Aydan Sat

Following the publication of ‘European Spatial Development Perspective’ in 1999, a large number of theoretical and empirical studies have been carried out on polycentric spatial development especially in European settlements. The relationship between polycentricity and economic competitiveness, environmental sustainability and social cohesion are some of the main concerns of these studies. This study aims to clarify ‘the meaning of polycentricity’ in the case of Turkey, as a developing country and analyse the relationship between polycentric spatial development and economic competitiveness, environmental sustainability and social cohesion. After calculation of morphological polycentricity of the regions at NUTS-5 level, the propositions on the positive effects of polycentric spatial development on economic competitiveness, environmental sustainability and social cohesion is tested by using Pearson correlation and OLS regression models. The results of the empirical study are mixed for these three subjects. Polycentric spatial development has not positive effects on economic competitiveness and social cohesion in Turkey case. Conversely, a positive effect exists in terms of environmental sustainability. 

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Read more about urban planning in Turkey:

Urban Travel Behavior in Large Cities of MENA Region: Survey Results of Cairo, Istanbul, and Tehran

TRADITIONAL SHOPPING: A Syntactic Comparison of Commercial Spaces in Iran and Turkey

Modeling street connectivity, pedestrian movement and land-use according to standard GIS street network representations: A Comparative Study

URBANIZATION TRENDS AND URBAN PLANNING STRATEGIES IN THREE MAJOR MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES: IRAN, EGYPT, AND TURKEY