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Urban Quality of Life Assessment

Throughout the semester you have studied key factors of urban growth and development.  These key factors have a strong influence on the lives of urban dwellers.  Now it is your turn to evaluate the factors that shape urban life in various parts of the world.  In this assignment, you will use what you have learned about sustainability and urban design to evaluate the sustainability of cities and the potential for high Quality of Life (QoL)in urban places.

 

Preparing for this Assessment

As you have learned, QoL is closely aligned with sustainable cities.  Recall your lectures and other materials that demonstrate the convergence of the 3 Es or the 5 Ps.  How can you use the sustainability lesson to evaluate the potential for QoL?  Start by going back to review the 3Es and 5 Ps.  Use the general information that defines each part of sustainability and how they combine to form sustainable environments.  Also review your QoL section to refresh your understanding of QoL and the key factors that indicate good and bad QoL. 

Before attempting this assignment, review the module on urbanization, sustainability and urban design.  You will need to understand and apply sustainability concepts and align them with urban design and urban experiences.  Your ability to explain the connections between urban design, access to services and opportunities, and other quality of life measures will be needed.

You will choose one city in any region of the world (but not in the USA).  Your city will be chosen from the list of Urban Profiles.  Each city profile has a short summary and demographic information as well as a list of recommended resources for further information. It will be important to review all of the information provided for the city you choose. 

 

Researching Your City

The city you choose for the Part 1 assessment will be on a list of city profiles provided in the modules section.  Each profile contains basic historical and demographic information to get you started.  However, you may not have all of the information you need in the City Profile.  It may be necessary to do some digging to supplement the information already provided for you. 

In the case that you seek out even more resources, make sure you are using reliable and reputable sources.  Don’t forget to  cite all of your sources in a Bibliography at the end of your paper.  Any direct quotes should be noted with in-text citations. 

Study our course materials carefully then also look for important data on the city you have chosen.  For example, you may want to look for information about access to education or the rate of child mortality to get even more information about the quality of life in the cities.  To a great extent, it will be up to you to decide what types of information are most important in comparing urban sustainability and QoL in the cities you have chosen. 

Citations can be formatted in any style.  Be consistent in the style you choose.  For example, if you start out using MLA citation style, use that same style throughout your paper.  If you are unsure of what style you should use or what it looks like, visit the FSU Library site.  They offer a very good citation management tool and citations are available in various styles for each resource.  Go to https://www.lib.fsu.edu/citation-management.

 

Quality of Life Assessment 

This assignment is your assessment of QoL.  The assessment will be based on two measurements of Quality of Life.  The measurements will be chosen from a list of factors in the table below.  These measurements are aligned with sustainability factors (3Es and 5Ps) and applied to the lived experience and QoL in the city. 

The use of the 3Es and 5Ps may not be obvious at first.  For example, you might like to compare whether the cities are peaceful.  Peace is one of the 5 Ps.  However, you might also want to compare access to education.  Education itself is not one of the 3Es or 5Ps, but education is part of establishing equitable access to economic participation and it also helps to support democratic political participation.  In this case, education is totally relevant to Economic participation and also Political participation, this is definitely linked to Equity and Prosperity, which are clearly defined in your sustainability lessons.  The key to a successful assignment will be in your ability to link QoL in cities to the sustainability measures.

The measures you choose to follow should be clearly linked to urban life as it has been explained in this class and in the context of the city you have chosen.  Use the information you have used in this class to help you explain the connections between urban sustainability and quality of life  in context.  Remember, the point of this assignment is that you are demonstrating mastery of the course content through an application of your knowledge.  Use what you have learned very clearly and obviously in your assignment

 

What To Turn In 

The QoL Assessment should be submitted through this assignment portal.  Each Quality of Life Assessment will include the following:

1. A short introduction to the city you have chosen for the assessment. Choose a city from the list of City Profiles provided in the modules section.  (20 pts.) The introduction must

a) Identify the city and the country it is in,

b) Summarize the state of environmental health. This will describe the air quality, availability of natural areas or green space, as well as consumption patterns, policy related to environmental protection or renewable energy, or other factors related to Environment and Planet.

c) Summarize the state of equality and division through a description of equality in access to economic opportunity, education, healthy environments, or other factors related to Equity, People and Prosperity. Other factors related to Peace and Partnership will be important to consider as they are related to Quality of Life.

d) Identify and summarize at least 1 example of urban design factors that relates to the sustainability of this city. The urban design factors could be related to transportation systems, energy infrastructure, or land use decisions. 

2. A concise assessment of the city:

Chose at least 2 factors to help you explain the state of sustainable development and quality of life in the city (See table below) (30 points).  In this section you will become very specific in assessing the quality of life.    The city should be assessed according to each of the 2 factors that you chose.  The table below provides categories of factors you may use for your assessment.  For example, if you choose to follow environment and Equity as assessment factors. You will identify specific examples or metrics (what you will use to measure an element of sustainability), and explain how they are linked to sustainability and also quality of life in each city.   For example, if you choose Environment, you could use a metric like “number of public parks” or “proportion of green space” as a measurement of green space.  For Equity you might use Poverty Rate or Income distribution as the common metric for shared prosperity or economic opportunity.  If the information is not in our course material, use a reliable resource to find out more.  Remember to always cite your sources!

Remember that sustainability is a balance of several factors.  Explain how the factors that you have chosen impact sustainability by explaining their impacts and relationships to other factors that should contribute to sustainable urban design or development.  Your assessment should identify opportunities as well as challenges to achieving sustainability and quality of life.  

Review your lessons on Sustainability and Quality of Life before you perform this analysis. 

 

To help you organize your assessment, try using this chart.   For your city, check the factors of sustainability that apply. Describe their context and use an example.  

Factor of Sustainability	Check two that apply
	City :
Environment (green space, renewable energy, clean air, Environmental protection) Planet (sustainable production and consumption, protecting the planet from degradation)
Equity (income distribution, access to education, access to healthy environments, free from discrimination and racism)  Partnership (shared responsibility and benefits, equal rights and political participation) People (people can fulfill their potential, absence of barriers to success- availability of health care, education, human rights)
Economy (equitable economic participation, employment)  Prosperity (Equitable participation in economic growth, access to technology and education as tools for economic participation)
Peace (absence of war, violence, and conflict)

 

A successful assignment will:

· Follow the assignment directions carefully and fully.

· Provide detailed descriptions and explanations to show that you have mastered the course material and you are able to apply it to cities.

· Include citations for information, data, quotations that come from any and all sources within and outside of the course material.

· Turn in the assignment on time and to the indicated assignment portals.

Other requirements and preferences

· The maximum word count should be no more than 1,500 words.