Urban Environmental Quality Mapping: A Perception Study on Chittagong Metropolitan City

Abstract

Urbanization is a global phenomenon. It is taking place at a faster pace in the less developed countries of the world like Bangladesh. The implication of such urbanization are manifested in mass poverty, gross inequality, high unemployment, crowded housing, proliferation of slums and squatters, deterioration in the environmental condition, highly inadequate supply of water, over crowding in schools and hospitals, increase in traffic jams, road accidents, crimes and social tensions. These features are the characteristics of nearly all urban centers of Bangladesh. The study has endeavored to analyze both the factual status and the perceptual pattern of the environmental quality of Chittagong Metropolitan City. The factual data have been collected from various secondary sources; while the perceptual data are based on a questionnaire survey of opinions of 492 respondents at the household level by city ward. Finally, it has been statistically justified by the use of a satisfaction index to know the degree of satisfaction of the respondents and chi-square test to examine the relationship between the income groups and degree of satisfaction. The study of perception residents f the different environmental aspects, show variation of degree of satisfaction by income groups and by groups of environmental features. The expected growth of population in Chittagong city will have adverse impact on the quality of urban environment.