Perceiving urban liveability in an emerging migrant city

Salama, Ashraf M.; Wiedmann, Florian

Abstract

© 2016, ICE Publishing. All rights reserved. Gulf cities have witnessed rapid urban growth where new migrant communities from various cultural backgrounds have been evolving over the last two decades. This paper explores perceptions of liveable urban environments in Qatar’s capital city, Doha. An attitude survey of 280 migrant professionals from different cultural backgrounds engaged in the high service sector was conducted. A profile for each cultural group including westerners, middle easterners, Indians and Southeast Asians was developed to analyse the way in which the key liveability factors are perceived. Factors were classified into two overarching categories: urban life and urban spaces. Urban life category included aspects that pertain to traffic and movement experience, residential satisfaction, shopping experience, and satisfaction regarding leisure and service spaces. Urban space category included attractiveness, iconicity and familiarity, which were attitudinally explored in four public open spaces. The inquiry has uncovered a number of concerns related to traffic experience, housing quality, parking spaces, school facilities and shopping opportunities. This may stymie the city’s global attractiveness success on the global stage while warranting the need for addressing liveability as a part of future development plans.

Citation

Salama, A. M., & Wiedmann, F. (2016). Perceiving urban liveability in an emerging migrant city. Proceedings of the ICE - Urban Design and Planning, 169(6), 268-278. https://doi.org/10.1680/jurdp.15.00034

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 1, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Nov 11, 2016
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jul 16, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 27, 2020
• Journal: Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Urban Design and Planning
• Print ISSN: 1755-0793
• Electronic ISSN: 1755-0807
• Publisher: Thomas Telford
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 169
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 268-278
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1680/jurdp.15.00034
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4500662
• Publisher URL: https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/10.1680/jurdp.15.00034