Selecting a Contextualized Set of Urban Quality of Life Indicators: Results of a Delphi Consensus Procedure

• Main Author: Jamal Al-Qawasmi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: urban quality of life; quality of life assessment tools; urban quality of life indicators; Delphi technique; urban development; cities
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/4945

Although indicators are commonly used to measure/assess urban quality of life (QOL), there is no consensus in the literature on the core indicators of urban QOL. This paper aims to identify a set of key indicators that will be used to assess/measure urban QOL in the Saudi Arabia (SA) context. For this purpose, a three-round online Delphi procedure is used. A group of 92 local experts were asked to rate the importance of a set of pre-defined indicators in assessing/measuring urban QOL. The results reveal that the panel of experts reached consensus and agreed on the high importance of 53 indicators for assessing/measuring urban QOL. These indicators provide appropriate coverage of the three core dimensions of urban QOL: environmental, social and economic. However, the results also show that the social indicators are perceived as more essential than economic and environmental indicators. This finding has practical implications for designing and developing QOL assessment tools to better capture and measure urban QOL in the SA context. Furthermore, research findings also identified some methodological limitations associated with using the Delphi approach, which need to be addressed to ensure the development of comprehensive QOL assessment tools.