The index approach for valuation of population's life quality and development level of urbanized territory

In the globalizing world, cities are beginning to compete not only for investment, but for human resources. In this regard, the issue of the quality of life in urbanized areas is becoming more prominent. A few existing approaches to the determination of the population's quality of life and the developmental level of urbanized areas are being examined by authors. The article notes that the methodology for estimating the quality of life at the present stage of development distinguishes the objective and subjective approaches. The objective approach is based on an assessment of statistical data and its aggregation. Besides statistical data, the subjective approach uses the results of sociological surveys and interviews with experts in certain areas of enterprise. The commonality between the two approaches is the use of index systems. The index approach allows one to compare parameters which have different units of measure and directions of action, and the calculation of an integral index facilitates the estimation of a net result, allowing one to conduct inter-regional and cross-country comparisons, and to monitor the dynamics of the development of an urbanized area. In the article, the systematization of indices is the most commonly used means of assessing quality of life and the level of city development, and the dynamics of several indices are evaluated. The complete analysis of the comparison of the quality of life index, human development index, and city prosperity index allows for the conclusion that the countries which lead in human development hold the first place in ratings of other indices. It confirms the close correlation of these indicators. The authors note that indices characterizing the concepts of "quality of life", "level of human development", and "level of city development" in combination allow for the evaluation of dynamics and the level of development of the urbanized areas. However, they are hardly used in the Russian Federation due to a certain complexity in calculation at the regional and municipal levels because of the limited statistical database. The authors establish that in the majority of indices examined, the daily life of a person is practically ignored. The research conducted by the author shows that a person's daily life, including the urban environment as a composite element is the most important factor in the formation of the quality of life. In the article, the author's definition of the term "urban environment" is given and it is noted that the urban environment represents not just an aggregate of isolated elements of building systems and infrastructure, but a system of interdependence between these separate elements. Therefore, the urban environment is the spatial-material basis for the formation of the population's quality of life. The analysis performed by the authors on the quality of life and city development indices used for cross-country and inter-regional comparison show that the majority of indices don't take the quality of urban planning into account. However, when drawing up documents for territorial and strategic planning of development for cities and regions, it is necessary to evaluate the indicators which characterize the spatial-material basis of forming the population's quality of life. The authors suggest the quality of urban environment index as this indicator. This indicator is calculated based on five individual indicators describing the quality of the urban environment. The individual indicators are calculated based on the Russian data base. The average Russian index for the quality of urban environment is set at one. If the quality of urban environment index value is less than one, than the urban environment quality is lower than the Russian average. A value exceeding one shows that the urban environment quality is higher than the Russian average. Therefore, the quality of urban environment index proposed by the authors permits one to evaluate the spatial-material basis forming a population's quality of life in a designated area, and is the foundation for the positioning of cities and the basis on which the area's image is formed.

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