UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN

FACULTY OF SPATIAL SCIENCES

FINAL REPORT

Qualities aspects that influence the Community Sense in situations of Urban

Renewal
Case of Study - The Hoogte and Tuinwijk neighbourhoods

Fernanda Alves de Campos - s2805529 - campossfernanda@gmail.com

Andr Tin Gimenez - s2805502 - andretgimenez@gmail.com
Groningen
June 19th, 2015
1. Background...........................................................................................................3
1.1.

Personal Motivation - Housing Stock in Brazil.................................................3

1.2.

Housing in the Netherlands..............................................................................4

1.3.

Urban Renewal................................................................................................4

1.4.

Perceived Quality of Neighbourhoods (Walton et al, 2008).............................5

1.5.

Sense of community (Mannarini et al, 2012)...................................................5

1.6.

Social capital (Kleinhans et al, 2007)...............................................................6

1.7.

Theory of Place................................................................................................7

1.8.

Case of study in Groningen, The Hodge and Tuinwijk neighbourhoods.........8

2. Research Problem Definition.............................................................................11

3. Research Goal Definition...................................................................................11

4. Research Questions...........................................................................................12
5. Methodology.......................................................................................................12
5.1.

The choice of the method..............................................................................12

5.2.

SCI questions selection and adaptation........................................................13

5.3.

PREQ questions selection and adaptation....................................................15

5.4.

Selection of the areas....................................................................................16

5.5.

Participants....................................................................................................18

6. Application..........................................................................................................19
7. Analysis...............................................................................................................20
7.1.

Analysis of the interviews...............................................................................20

7.2.

Quantitative....................................................................................................24

7.3.

Image analysis (Kevin Lynch)........................................................................24

7.4.

Segregation within the neighbourhood (Kleinhans et al, 2007).....................25

8. Discussions and Conclusions..........................................................................27

9. References..........................................................................................................31
10. Appendix..............................................................................................................32

1. Background
1.1.

Personal Motivation - Housing Stock in Brazil

In the last decade, Brazil has developed a program called Minha Casa, Minha Vida
(MCMV) that in free translation means My Home, My Life, which aims to decrease
the quantitative deficit of houses that the country has. This program subsidy homes
below a threshold cost, and the houses are built by private developers. Commonly,
those buildings have poor quality and flexibility an often necessary quality for the
population it aims at. The typical houses that participate in this program usually fits
between a group of buildings, from 4 to 6 store-high structural brick, or H-shaped
concrete structure, although many other typologies can be found. Those are
generally built next to an already existing road infrastructure, next to the limits of the
built environment or in areas in where the cost of the land is still not high, or in which
the municipal government give the land to this development. In these regions the lack
of infrastructure it is common, such as public spaces, connections to the city center,
proximity with commercial activities and public transportations.
In Brazil, only nowadays the government started to supervise more closely the
policy that requires that all buildings, from the design till after the construction, must
have a technical manager (e.g. an architect or an engineer). This policy is still far
from being fulfilled by the population, since it is in the Brazilian background the selfproduced houses - those that do not have a direct help of an architects or an
engineerings and represents about 70 per cent of the housing stock at a national
scale (MinC, 2011). This happens as an outcome of a historical disconnection
between wage and house price (Arantes, 2009) and imply in a need to increase the
housing quality in the following years, mainly in the MCMV housing program, but in
those estates development as well. Quoting an example of Chile, a south-American
country with better quality of life figures (e.g.: IDH and GDP per capita) than Brazil,
and that had a program similar to MCMV for more than three decades after many
political reforms in the late 70s, is already been through a similar process: the
demolition of buildings from their program is already happening, because of a lack of
interest in those houses due to their below then demanded construction quality, poor
urbanistic quality and many social problems such as drug dealing, domestic violence
and others. (Rolnik, 2013).
3

1.2.

Housing in the Netherlands

Since 1945, the Dutch housing policy has a long tradition of controlling rents, offering
subsidies and loans and supporting the rental sector (Priemus, 1998). Housing
context in The Netherlands is very different from Brazil. The process of urban
development is characterized by the amount of plans and projects needed to build
everything, being considered as one of the most planned countries in the world
(Hajer, 2000). The Dutch government has played a major role in the delivery of new
housing and has made design quality an important part of the government policy
(Cousins, 2009).
Still according to Priemus, most Dutch cities were concerned with building
affordable dwellings for households with a low income. However, the difference
between the two scenarios, the Brazilian one and the Dutch one, is that in the
Netherlands the government is concerned with the mismatch between rent and
income. Since 1989, there is a policy that the most inexpensive rental houses were
supposed to be occupied by low-income people and the most expensive rentals were
intended for households with a high income. At the same time, efforts were made to
relate rent levels more closely to the quality of the dwelling (Cousins, 2009).
1.3.

Urban Renewal

In situations of poor quality of the housing stock, due to the age of the building, lack
of maintenance, or in dwellings that are incapable to satisfy the current requirements
of residents, an urban renewal may be necessary. Usually, those urban renewal
consist of demolishing of the worst buildings that have some kind of technical
problems, or would be too expensive to restore, the adaptation and sometimes the
union of existing dwellings, the construction of new houses, usually for the middle
class as part of the state-led gentrification process, sale of some dwellings to
increase the share of owner-occupied houses - a goal defined at national scale redesign of public space and other social actions, such as language lessons to ethnic
minorities, more facilities for leisure, provision of caring services for the elderly or
educational programmes (Ouwehand, 2002).
This is only possible due to the status of association, which means a private
organization with social goals. The government can, for example, define the areas in
need of restructuring and set goals for the housing associations like the increase of
4

the owner-occupied share (Ouwehand, 2002). This make possible the state-led
gentrification. With the assumption by the government that a higher share of middle
class can increase the overall quality of the neighborhood, and the assumption of the
housing associations that by selling of houses, especially in consolidated
neighborhoods, their stability can increase, the urban renewal projects displace
residents and gentrify certain regions as a tool of urban development (Priemus,
1998).
1.4.

Perceived Quality of Neighbourhoods (Walton et al, 2008)

Quality perception can be describe as the opinion of the user/consumer regarding the
ability of some product to fulfill his or her expectations (Jan-Benedict, 1990).
However, the perception of quality can have many meanings, since the definition of
quality is quite general. Based on this assumption, Carp and Carp (1982), developed
the Perceived Environmental Quality Index (PEQI) in order to create a method to
evaluate the satisfaction of residents towards their living environment. Their method
consists of 11 scales that assess the respondents satisfaction with aspects of the
environmental quality of their neighbourhoods, such as aesthetics, air quality, noise
and neighbourhood characteristics and others. The goal of this method was to see if
objective information about the environment could measure its quality (Walton et al,
2008).
According to Walton, a similar method was developed, based in the PEQI, by
Bonaiuto, the Perceived Residential Environmental Quality (PREQ). The PREQ was
developed to evaluate resident perceptions of their nearby environment, and aim was
to predict neighbourhood attachment (Bonaiuto et al, 1999). Looking forward to
create a more accurate method, Bonaiuto tried to make more precise questions in
PREQ.
1.5.

Sense of community (Mannarini et al, 2012)

According to Mannarini (2012), the term psychological sense of community (PSOC)

is the feeling of being a member of a larger community supported by interpersonal
sharing and an emotional connection. In her article How identification process and
inter-community relationships affect sense of community, she describes that, based
on the Social Identity and Social Categorization Theory, it is possible to investigate
how the identification with the physical component of a community, the perception of
5

a community and the perception of one or more territorial communities affects the
PSOC.
Contextualizing, primarily the term PSOC refers to a feeling of being a part of
a complex entity, it captures the psychological component of life in community and
the emotional connections and ties between individuals and the community
(Mannarini et al, 2012). Inside the concept of the sense of community, there are two
identification process, the first one is the identification with a place, and the second
one is the identification with a group. In order to identify the peoples perception
regarding the sense of community, several methods were developed through the
years. The most important ones are the one created by Miretta Prezza in 2009, which
was used by Mannarini in her work, and the one created by Adam Long in 2003, that
will be the one used for the later development of this paper. The table 1 demonstrate
how the Long method has an approach more local regarding the questions asked.

Table 1: A. Long method to analyze sense of community. Items and Factors Relevant to the Present
Analyses.
Source: Long, D. A., Perkins, D. D., 2003. Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Sense of Community
Index and Development of a Brief SCI.

1.6.

Social capital (Kleinhans et al, 2007).

For Middleton (2005), social capital is seen as the foundation on which social stability
and capacity of a community to help itself are built; and their absence is considered a
key factor in reducing neighborhood. According to Kleinhans, Priemus and
Engbersen (2007), in a neighborhood context, social capital refers to the benefit of
surface interactions, common standards on how to treat each other and behavior in
space, trust and collective actions of residents for a common purpose.
With the growth of urban restructuring in Dutch cities it is common to see
residential mobility, causing substantial population changes, splitting the population in
the stayers, movers and newcomers. The main idea behind almost every urban
renewal project is to create a socially mixed neighbourhood population. It is already
know that attracting middle-class residents to a renewed neighbourhood helps to
reinforce social networks. According to the research conducted by them in two
neighbourhoods in Rotterdam, social capital is an asset that newcomers bring to the
neighbourhood, since providing role models for the lower-incomers households, their
behaviors and aspirations will increase, as well the social capital of that
neighbourhood.
Nowadays, many politicians argue that urban regeneration must not only
improve the physical quality of neighborhoods, but also the welfare of its inhabitants.
They stand that some factors are associated with higher levels of social capital. They
include a higher income of the residents, the presence of families with children, a
stronger place attachment, increased quality perception of the neighborhood and
single-family homes.
1.7.

Theory of Place

Following the theory of social capital, place is an important aspect. According to

Vanclay, Higgins and Blackshaw (2008), place matters to every person. They agree
that sense of place is a about the individuals connection to the place and to their
experience of place. And also that place attachment it is the closest component part
to sense of place. It refers specifically to the extent to which an individual has
positive feelings about their local environment and/or community.

According to this definition it is possible to connect everything that it is

presented here. The perceived quality, sense of community and social capital are
closely connected by the idea of place. Without the place attachment and the sense
of place, no individual would be able to feel that have a part in the community, would
be unable to identify the quality of the environment in which they live or to help
develop the social capital in their neighbourhoods.
1.8.

Case of study in Groningen, The Hodge and Tuinwijk neighbourhoods.

The city of Groningen is located in the northern part of the Netherlands. After the
analyses of all the topics previously presented, two neighbourhoods were selected in
the city of Groningen, The Hodge, situated in the Northeast part of the city, and
Tuinwijk (also known as Concordiabuurt) is in the North part of Groningen. Both
neighbourhoods were chosen due to the renovation process that they went through
in the last few years. The exact location of both neighbourhoods can be seen in the
map 1, below.

Map 1: Location of the neighbourhoods Tuinwijk and De Hoogte in the city of Groningen.
Source: Google maps, 2014. Modified by authors.

The neighbourhood The Hoogte went through a renovation process that ended
in 2011. The goal of the urban renewal of this neighbourhood was to create a livable
and safe neighbourhood, and, at the same time, retain the original character of there.
The whole renovation did not reached the whole neighbourhood, only a part of it (as
can be seen in map 2 and figure 1) and had as an outcome 494 renovated houses,
which 283 are rental houses and 55 owner-occupied. The other neighbourhood,
Tuinwijk, went through a renewal process that ended in 2012. The aim of this
renovation was to give the neighbourhood a better image, since the housing state
had a bad image because of drug-related problems, and the quality of the buildings
9

were terrible. As well as in the other neighbourhood, Tuinwijk was not completely
renewed, it is possible to see renovated part in the map 4 and figure 2 below (KAW,
2014).

Map 2: Specific location of the renewals in De Hoogte.

Source: Google maps, 2014. Modified by authors.

10

Figure 1: Renewal plan in De Hoogte.

Source: KAW NL.

Map 4: Specific location of the renewals in Tuinwijk.

Source: Google maps, 2014. Modified by authors.

11

Figure 2: Renewal plan in Tuinwijk.

Source: KAW NL.

2. Research Problem Definition

Urban renewal will inevitably impact in the sense of community of a neighborhood, as
it interferes in the physical aspects and social networks and also in the population
composition. Giving the outcomes that a sense of community can promote
(Mannarini, 2012), evaluate the impact of the renewal in the sense of community is
necessary to better understand the social impacts of the project.
The qualitative changes can attract or distract specific populations, similar in a
gentrification process, in which the rise in quality standards can select those who are
going to move in and move out of the region. Those quality-focused urban renewal
can, then, contribute or destroy the sense of community. Furthermore, we need to
identify which of both apply.
3. Research Goal Definition

Explore peoples perception about the restructured area to find out how these
restructurings plans affects the sense of community and the quality of the built
environment;
12

Identify the relation between the different kinds of quality improvements and
place identity in the studied neighborhoods.

4. Research Questions

How the urban renewal is associated with the perceived quality of the built
environment and the sense of community?

I.
II.
III.

Does it have a positive or negative impact?

Which features are responsible for more or less impact?
Does it enforced or denied the place identity?

I.

How the urban renewal affected the sense of community?

What are the improved qualities in those neighborhoods?

How they affected the place identity?

5. Methodology
5.1.

The choice of the method

After analyzing the pre-selected literature, the necessity of choose a method to

conduct our research emerged. Among all our sources, we managed to choose two
articles that stand out from the others, due to the methodology used to defend and
proof their ideas. Both articles consisted in surveys applied to the population in the
area that was being studied, and the two methods were very successful.
First, the method used to evaluate the sense of community was the Sense of
Community Index (SCI) adapted by Long & Pekins (2003). This method was
presented by Chavis and McMillan in 1986 and went through many changes over the
years. The SCI is the most frequently used quantitative measure of sense of
community in the social sciences. The original SCI stated that a sense of community
was a perception with four elements: membership, influence, meeting needs, and a
shared emotional connection. In Long & Perkins (2003) their specific method, the
Brief SCI, is composed by 12 questions in which the respondent show how much
they agree or disagree with the sentence. Variations of this questions were made
relating to a period before the urban renewal. The assumption is that the
respondents memories of the previous state of the neighborhood was going to be
valid and show the shift in the community sense of the residents. One could say that
13

the memory could be wrong and the answer would reflect the actual wishes of the
resident (he had experienced a development in his social relations but he fantasized
about the past to show a dissatisfaction towards the renewal, or the other way
around) but this limitation of the method is assumed to not be relevant. Moreover, by
asking for a before and after value, it is possible to evaluate how much the person
perceive an increase in a given aspect, as well as the actual value of the present
state.
The other method was choose to address the quality of the environment. It
was made a selection and adaptation of the Perceived Residential Environmental
Quality (PREQ) scales, which was created by Bonnes et al (1997) and used by
Bonaiuto et al (1999) and by Walton, Murray and Thomas (2008). The PREQ also
consisted of scales, and are included in the four generative criteria as follows: three
scales deal with spatial aspects (i.e. architectural planning space, organization and
accessibility of space, green areas); one scale concerns human aspects (i.e. people
and social relations); four scales relate to functional aspects (i.e. welfare,
recreational, commercial and transportation services) and three scales deal with
contextual aspects (i.e. pace of life, environmental health, upkeep). Also, here the
respondents had to answer the questions with values, that corresponded to
completely agree till completely disagree.
5.2.

SCI questions selection and adaptation

In their work, Confirmatory factor analysis of the sense of community index

and development of a brief SCI, Long & Pekins developed 12 questions (table 2), to
be answered regarding the period before the urban renewal and after it. In our
research, we decided to keep the before and after structure, but we had to adapt
some of the questions and choose only the ones that could be applied in our
neighbourhoods, since our research was quite smaller than the original one, and also
a few questions could not be applied in our neighbourhoods in the same way that
were applied originally. We managed to use 7 of the 12 questions after small
adaptations. Also, we decided to ask if people agree, disagree or feel neutral about
the questions, in order to make the questions more reliable. The final SCI questions
that we used in our survey can be seen in table 3.

14

Table 2 12 SCI questions proposed by Long & Pekins (2003)

Source: Confirmatory factor analysis of the sense of community index and development of a brief SCI
(2003)

Original question
I can recognize most of the people who live on

Adapted question
-

my block.
I have almost no influence over what this block

I have participated in the urban renewal

is like.
I think my block is a good place for me to live.
People on this block do not share the same

process.
-

values.
It is very important to me to live on this particular

block.
I feel at home on this block.
I care about what my neighbors think of my

actions.
Table 3 7 (adapted) SCI questions proposed by the authors.
Source: Confirmatory factor analysis of the sense of community index and development of a brief SCI
(2003) Modified by the authors.

5.3.

PREQ questions selection and adaptation

The PREQ questions were first introduced by Bonnes (1997), and better

developed by Bonaiuto (2003), and, Wanton, Murray and Thomas (2008), who used
this method again and were able to adjust the original survey to one that had less
15

problems. This research were developed in an index of scales, (Bonaiuto, 2003). The
index is consisted of 12 scales (categories), and factors (subcategories), as can be
seen in table 4. To adapt this research to our work was also necessary to make some
changes in the questions. We choose to use only 4 scales and focus on their
subcategories (table 5), since not every PREQ scale could be applied in our research
and a bigger amount of scales could decrease the response rate, decrease the
quality of the answers and make the analysis more difficult.

Table 4 12 scales from the PREQ questions in Bonaiuto (2003).

Source: Indexes of perceived residential environment quality and neighbourhood attachment in urban
environments (2003).

Original question
Building details are well-made.
This neighborhood is aesthetically unpleasant.
Open spaces and built up areas are well

Adapted question
Building are well-made.
-

balanced.
There are green areas for relaxing.

There are public spaces (parks, squares) for

relaxing.

16

You feel watched.

It is not risk to go around late in the evening.
People tend to be isolated.
Residents show care for their neighborhood.
Many buildings are in poor conditions.

People have enough privacy in here.

I feel safe in this neighborhood.
-

Table 5 9 (adapted) PREQ questions proposed by the authors.

Source: Indexes of perceived residential environment quality and neighbourhood attachment in urban
environments (2003) Modified by the authors.

5.4.

Selection of the areas

After the selection of the questions, and the creation of the survey, it was

necessary to decide where in the neighbourhoods the surveys would be applied. In

order to have many different answers as we could get, we needed to deliver the
surveys in different parts of the neighbourhoods, and not only in the parts where the
urban renewal occurred. It is possible to see in the map 5 (The Hoogte) and map 6
(Tuinwijk) the areas where the urban renewal take place and the areas where the
surveys where applied.

17

Map 5: Selection of areas in The Hoogte Neighbourhood

Source: Google maps, 2014. Modified by authors.

18

Map 6: Selection of areas in Tuinwijk Neighbourhood

Source: Google maps, 2014. Modified by authors.

5.5.

Participants

Although we did not know to who we delivered the surveys, it was possible to predict
that we were going to get answers in between our age range. It is possible to see in
table 6 below, the population of both neighbourhoods in 2014.
The Hoogte

Tuinwijk

Population

3750

1542

Male

1939 (51.7%)

765 (49.6%)

Female

1811 (48.3%)

777 (50.4%)

People from 20 to 24 years old

14.1

20.9

(%)

Table 6: Population in both The Hoogte and Tuinwijk neighbourhoods in 2014.

Source: Geemente Groningen (20114) modified by authors.

The population of people from 20 to 24 years old is highlighted as this

population in this range is commonly of students, that usually just moved in to
19

Groningen and did not had time or will to develop a sense of community. This
population of students that did not used to live in Groningen was disregarded. The
percentage in the table, close to the city average (17.1%) shows that those
neighborhoods are not a student neighborhood.
The population of neighborhoods that had an urban renewal plan has six
categories of inhabitants: the stayers, the forced movers within the neighborhood, the
forced movers to surrounding neighborhoods, the forced movers to other
neighborhoods and the newcomers, both from surrounding or distant neighborhoods
(Kleinhans et al., 2007). In our case, we gathered this information based on when the
person had moved in to the neighborhood and from where.
6. Application
The data collection was done through surveys, which were applied with the drop-off
and the pick-up method. It was decided to do the application through a weekend, in a
way that we could pick-up the surveys on a Saturday, when we expected to find more
people at home.
Thursday, May 21st, we drop-off in the mail box of our intended respondents a
letter (appendix 1), with a handwritten signature, explaining slightly the research and
saying that we would be back to collect the survey answered the next Saturday, the
23rd, and a survey (appendix 2). However, unfortunately a mistaken with the dates
occurred and in the letter that we put in the mail boxes we said that we would collect
the survey on the 24th in that case, a Sunday. Thus, although it was a Sunday and
later on we find out that it was also an extended holyday, we had to go collect the
surveys on the day scheduled.
Although we have not experienced any problem when dropping off the
surveys, a few obstacles came up in the day that we were collecting it. First, as
already said before, as it was a Sunday, and a holyday, many people were not at
home, and some that were, claimed that as it was a special holyday that weekend,
they had not yet had time to answer or was not at home when we came to pick it up.
Also, although we have translated the survey to Dutch, a few people that did not
speak English could not understand us when we knocked on their doors to ask for
the survey filled in. Another issue that came up was some aggressiveness that we
get in a few houses in The Hoogte neighbourhood, in some of the houses, although
20

they spoke English, they did not seem very inclined to answer our questions. Also, a
few dwellers not even looked to us to hear what we had to say, just saying that they
did not have what we wanted. Finally, another complication was in the Tuinwijk
neighbourhood, in which we delivered around sixty surveys in the Concordiastraat,
and turn out that when we get there to collect, we find out that almost half of the
street was composed by temporary houses destined to patients of a psychiatric clinic,
so we could not get any answer on those houses.
Nevertheless, although all those problems that were faced, the method of
dropping off and picking up it proved to be very effective. As can be seen in table 7
bellow, we listed a few negative and positive points regarding this kind of method
application.
Positive aspects
Respondents have more time to think and

Negative aspects
Never know if the house is a real house.

answer.
Good response rate, given the problems.

Difficulty to make interviews after collecting the

survey, as people would just give us back and

Minimum problems due to language barrier.

avoid conversation.
Further comments and dialogues would usually
start in Dutch.
Lack of a broader
unpredicted

understanding

consequences

of

the

in

the

urban

renewal.
Table 7: Positive and negative aspects of the drop-off pick-up method.
Source: Created by the authors (2015).

7. Analysis
7.1.

Analysis of the interviews

Two interviews were made. Although a small amount, some insights about the history
and image of the neighborhood were made.

1st Interview

One of the interviews was made with a resident that did not answer the survey but
was really interested in helping in the research, and lasted for about 25minutes. The
30 years old man, who lives with his wife, is a resident of the northern part of The
Hoogte, in one of the newly built buildings (figure 3). He said he decided to move to
21

that building due to its closeness to the city center, the presence of parking spaces
and because he used to live in the southern part of the neighborhood.
He described the southern part as a not good place to live, with the presence
of drug dealers, single-mothers and many other problems related to this although
he did not specified which kind of problems are those. He characterized people from
the southern part of the neighborhood as less educated and of lower income. When
comparing the Brazilian problem presented by the interviewer with the one of his own
neighborhood, he presented his view, in which the development of those poor people
would happen by surrounding the region where they live by wealthier areas and
wealthier people, and thus promoting an improvement in the region. When
displacement was introduced as a common practice in Brazil, he said that they could
not get rid of those people, as it would be racism.

Figure 3: Location of where the first interview happened.

Source: Google maps, 2015.

He liked the neighborhood itself due to its location and its accessibility to the
city center and other parts of the city, and decided to make an investment to buy a
better house there. He said that the house is of good quality, and that he really likes
it, although an architecture decision made his house to not have a direct solar
incidence, which he desired but did not see when buying the house. However, he
considered this his own fault and that it is his responsibility to be careful about this.
He talked about the eyes on the street that the new buildings created and how
this fosters the safety of the area. However, he said at another moment in the
22

conversation how people do not care about noise in the street. He listed problems
that happened in the region during the years he has been living there, such as
vandalisms in the plant vases that his neighbors used to put in front of the doors,
many cases of house burglary nearby and people from the southern part of the
neighborhood making noise, knocking parked bikes and scratching parked cars.
Once he heard some noise and went out of his house, but the vandals fled as soon
as they saw him. But what else could I do? he said.
Another problem was the lack of parking space near his house, as the other
residents of the higher white buildings would prefer to park their cars in front of their
windows, instead of in their parking space in the back of their building. But he said it
was a minor problem, it was more an inconvenience. The places that he pointed
while he was talking about places to park his car were very close to those where he
pointed the action of the vandals. Other problem listed by him was dogs popping in
the grass and dogs pissing on peoples car. When asked if there were many kids in
the neighborhood, he said there was more than he expected, and that the playground
is too far away, so kids have to walk about two or three blocks to play.
During the conversation, it was possible to see that he and his direct
neighbors have connections. During the talk, a neighbor with a glass of beer
complimented him and asked if the neighbor of the next door was travelling or not,
and said he was coming back later to talk with him. In the end, he said that the place
indeed improved a lot after the renewal, with a decrease in drug traffic and violence,
and that this is a development process and will probably get better.
Impressions and remarks
The first problem that arises is the possibility of intra-neighborhood segregation,
which could not be evaluated in a neighborhood scale analysis. This problem was
already identified in (put source here), and this is an indicative that a research about
this could be done. The offer of better housing in a part of a neighborhood can create
the concentration of people that got an increase in rent and perhaps an increase in
their social capital, or the influx of higher income class just in a region, which would
not lead to a spatial development. An increase in socio-economic or quality indexes
in a neighborhood level can hide this kind of spatially distributed process.
23

The concentration of people based on preferences the market research

made to identify the kind of dwelling and family that those houses were aimed at
can influence in the community index too, as people of the same group are more
easily identifiable with each other. Even the place attachment process of two groups
(one of newcomers and the other of old residents that stayed in their houses plus old
residents that changed of houses) will be different, thus it should be better
understood and made in a research that properly divide those two groups. A few
times in the conversation, he referred his part of the neighborhood as us and the
other part as them
However, the way in which the interviewed said about his model of
development made the impression that he considers himself as part of an urban
development and is proud of it. Except for the car parking space, the said reasons
for choosing that neighborhood are not really balanced with the bad points and the
problems that he already knew. Perhaps there is an economic factor but, more
important, a neighborhood effect and an attachment to the place that influenced his
choice. A better understanding on the reasons to move within the neighborhood in
the cases of urban renewal would be an interesting factor to avoid the intraneighborhood segregation or to use potential community integration that some
individuals have.

2nd interview

The second interview was a small one with a Vietnamese single-mother who lives
with her two sons of about 4 and 6 years old. She was sunbathing outside while her
kids were playing in the street (figure 4). She lives in Groningen since she was 6
years old, but she moved into the neighborhood only recently, after the renewal. She
said her house is quiet small, but it is what she can afford, and she likes the place.
When asked what she knew about the neighborhood before the renewal, she
told me that she heard it was a bad place, with a lot of drug dealing and single
mothers. At this moment she made a remark saying she is a single-mother because
she wants to. She said that there is still drug dealing, but nowadays she do not hear
about this frequently, and that is probably better than before.

24

Figure 4: Location of where the first interview happened.

Source: Google maps, 2015.

She said she did not really integrated with the rest of the neighborhood, saying
it was mainly due to the distance of her house of the public spaces, like that one that
exists in the De Hoogte street. She commented about this public space three times
during the conversation, one of them implying that this feature would promote a
better integration between the residents of the street. She said that there is a
neighborhood association and there are regular meetings, but she does not
participate. She said that if she did, she would probably know more people and be
more integrated in the neighborhood.
7.2.

Quantitative

All the values presented ahead are in the same dimension, in which positive is
desirable and negative undesirable. The negative questions (e.g.: this neighborhood
is aesthetically unpleasant) where multiplied by -1 to be in the same scale as the
positive ones. The color grades are as a visual reference only.
The SCI was calculated by the sum of a weighted average of each question.
The weight is based on the number of dimensions the questions interferes. The SCI
scale has a domain from -5 to 5. The PREQ was calculated with an average of
questions that are for the same dimension, summed up. PREQ domain is from -7 to
7.

The Hoogte
25

The question of how the residents rate their quality of life did not entered in the
calculation of the PREQ, and it was analyzed separately.
1. Respondents

Gender of respondents Age of respondents

1
4

< 18
10

male

18 a 29

female

30 - 54
55 +

12
16

In the Hoogte neighborhood, there was 23 answers, 12 of them of female

residents, and 10 of them male and 1 person that did not want to answer the
demographic questions. The majority of the respondents were from 30 to 54 years
old, while none were less than 18 years old. There were 11 new residents and 11 old
residents.

26

Index (SCI)CommunitySense of

2. Question by question.
Question
I can recognize most of the people who live on my block
I have participated in the urban renewal process
I think my block is a good place for me to live
People on this block do not share the same values
It is very important to me to live on this neighborhood
I feel at home on this block

Before
-0.25
-0.92
0.58
-0.50
-0.08
0.50

After
-0.18
-0.91
0.48
-0.43
-0.43
0.30

Chang
e
0.07
0.01
-0.11
0.07
-0.35
-0.20

Perceived Residential
Environmental Quality
(PREQ)

I care about what my neighbors think of my actions

-0.42
-0.17
0.24
Building are well-made
-0.27
0.00
0.27
This neighborhood is aesthetically unpleasant
0.08
0.22
0.13
Open spaces and built up areas are well balanced
-0.08
0.00
0.08
There are public spaces (parks, squares) for relaxing
0.00
0.13
0.13
People have enough privacy in here
-0.08
-0.22
-0.13
I feel safe in this neighborhood
0.33
0.43
0.10
People tend to be isolated
0.25
0.30
0.05
Residents show care for the neighborhood
-0.25
-0.17
0.08
Many buildings are in poor conditions
0.00
0.30
0.30
How would you rate your quality of living?
3.42
3.64
0.22
Table 8: Average values for the survey questions. Scale from -1 to 1, except the last question, which
goes from 0 to 5.
Source: Created by the authors (2015).

Change
In the table 8 above, it is possible to see how the main guidelines cited by the
architects were achieved in the plan. Within the PREQ questions, the upkeep and
care is the question with the higher increase, as the project aimed to restore and put
the buildings in better conditions. Moreover, the improvement in the built up area
quality is clear with positive answers in all the three questions. The increase in the
public space was another aim in the project and was voted positively. The lowers
values are in the category of people and social relations, with a decrease in privacy,
and a minimum increase in the other three questions. It should be noted that 4
questions had a negative value before, while only two have it after. This shows a
persistent although less problematic aspect related to care of the neighbors with the
neighborhood, and an increase concern with privacy.

27

As for the SCI, the values are much lower, with 3 out of 7 questions with
negative values and only one with an increase higher than 0.07. These values,
however, are not precise, especially those related with place attachment, as the table
above shows the average of old and new residents. These values are better
analyzed by dimension and in the calculated SCI below. However, it is interesting to
note a big decrease in the importance the residents give to living in the
neighborhood, and how they think their perception of the block as a home decreased.
This shows a decrease in the levels of place attachment that should increase in the
following years. The value of privacy showed a decrease, which can be interpreted
as an increasing concern with this aspect. When asked about the quality of living in
the neighborhood, the score was good and presented an increase of 6%.
Nowadays
For the SCI questions, the values of after the renewal are mostly negative (5 out of
7). None of the results that had an imagined increase are positive nowadays. The
level of participation in the renewal process is extremely low, achieving an average of
-0.91. The level
The nowadays values of quality are generally positive, but show a concern
with privacy and care. The nowadays values shows a low attachment of the residents
with the neighborhood. It is interesting to note the importance that people give to live
in the block (0.30 and 0.48), and the lack of importance that people give to live in the
neighborhood (-0.43), perhaps shows that the image of a neighborhood decreased.
3. By dimension
This section analyses the responses based on categories proposed by the literature
of SCI and PREQ. It analyses only a change in the value of all residents.
Category
Sence of
Community
Index (SCI)
Perceived
Residential
Environmental
Quality

Architectural and
town-planning
space
Green areas
People and social

Dimension

Change in
value

Group membership
Social connections
Need fulfillment
Place attachment
Emotional connection
Building aesthetics

0.07
0.04
-0.02
-0.07
-0.10
0.20

Building density

0.08
0.13
-0.13

Discretion and civility

28

relations

(PREQ)

0.10
0.05
0.19

Security and tolerance

Sociability and cordiality

Upkeep and care

The dimensions shows a general negative value of the SCI dimensions,

especially place attachment and emotional connection, although those two are highly
dependent on the time of living in that place. It is interesting to note an increase in
group membership.
4. SCI and PREQ based on groups
SCI
before

All residents
Old residents
New residents

after

PREQ
change

-0.78

-0.82
-1.51
0.02

-0.74

-1.11
-0.31

-0.57
-1.32

-1.30
-1.69
0.95

-1.30
-0.95
-1.23

before

after

change

-0.25

0.83
-0.38
2.14

-0.13

0.54
-1.01

-1.07
1.67

0.00
1.08

1.07
-0.58

0.00
0.73
-2.18

1.00
-2.20
1.88

-4.50
1.00
-0.38

-5.50
3.20
-2.25

gender

Male
Female
age

< 18
18 - 29
30 - 54
55 +

Summary table of responses based on time living in the neighborhood, gender and age

Different results were indicated depending of the gender, the age and if the
person moved into the neighborhood before or after the urban renewal.

29

The PREQ had a slightly decrease in old residents, together with a major
decrease in the SCI. This may point out how the renewal process did not improved
(or it was not perceived as an improvement) for this group, while still affecting their
place and sense of community. As for the new residents, their sense of community is
basically zero. Although it is expected to be low, this value after 4 years after the
renewal shows the lack of community sense to the other residents and to the rest of
the neighborhood. The high level of perceived quality was expected as well, as they
would not move in to a new neighborhood if they do not at least expect a good
quality.

30

For
it

women,
is

possible

to see a big
decrease in
sense

the

of

community.

Giving

the reports

in

interviews,

there

the
is

possible

explanation: the single-mothers are more sensitive to place and community change.
It is not possible to sustain a relation between SCI and women, as in the other
neighborhood analyzed below their value increased.

31

In the point of view of one resident with age from 18 to 29 years old, the
quality decreased a lot. Although this value is shown, it should be disregarded.
Residents from 30 to 54 years old have an increase in both SCI and PREQ, although
still having low values of SCI. One explanation for this is the satisfaction of the new
residents with the neighborhood. The major decrease was from people of 55 years or
more.

32

 Tuiwijk
1. Respodents

Gender of respondents Age of respondents

3
10male

< 18
18 a 29

female

10

30 - 54
55 +

16
13

In Tuinwijk neighborhood, there were 26 answers, 10 of them of women, and

16 men. Again, the majority of the respondents were from 30 to 54 years old, while
none were less than 18 years old. There were 15 new residents and 11 old residents.

Perceived Residential
Environmental Quality
(PREQ)

Index (SCI)Community Sense of

2. Question by question
Question
I can recognize most of the people who live on my
block
I have participated in the urban renewal process
I think my block is a good place for me to live
People on this block do not share the same values
It is very important to me to live on this
neighborhood
I feel at home on this block

Before

I care about what my neighbors think of my actions

Building are well-made
This neighborhood is aesthetically unpleasant
Open spaces and built up areas are well balanced
There are public spaces (parks, squares) for
relaxing
People have enough privacy in here
I feel safe in this neighborhood
People tend to be isolated
Residents show care for the neighborhood
Many buildings are in poor conditions
How would you rate your quality of living?

After

Chang
e

0.27
-0.36
0.82
0.00

0.35
-0.54
0.96
0.08

0.07
-0.17
0.14
0.08

0.27
0.64

0.35
0.81

0.07
0.17

0.09
0.45
0.45
0.36

0.31
0.69
0.73
0.69

0.22
0.24
0.28
0.33

0.64
0.55
0.73
0.36
0.18
0.64
4.00

0.77
0.50
0.77
0.46
0.62
0.85
4.19

0.13
-0.05
0.04
0.10
0.43
0.21
0.19

Table 9: Average values for the survey questions. Scale from -1 to 1, except the last question, which
goes from 0 to 5.

33

Source: Created by the authors (2015).

Change
On SCI questions, different from the previous neighborhood, it had only one negative
value in one question, which had a mistake in the way it was written, and thus it
cannot be used as a reference. The increase was in all bigger in the questions about
emotion connection and related to the block itself, although again the value of shared
values within the neighborhood was low.
About PREQ, there was an increase in upkeep and care, architecture and
built-up area and green spaces questions. It should be noted that the value of those
questions is already way above those of the other neighborhood, but still saw a
higher increase. The value of people and social relations answers did not increase,
but their values are already high. The value of privacy showed a decrease, which can
be interpreted as an increasing concern with this aspect. When asked about the
quality of living in the neighborhood, the score was high and presented an increase
of 5%.
Nowadays
As stated, the values of almost all the aspects of PREQ are already about 0.6, with
only two exceptions. The condition of the buildings, the amount of public spaces, the
safety of the neighborhood and its aesthetics has the highest scores.
As for the SCI, the high level of acceptance of the block (0.96) and the feeling
of being at home (0.81) shows a very different context with the other neighborhood.
The only negative value is the one about participation, which is comprehensible as
usually only a share of the population of the residents actually participate, and this
value is already much higher than the other neighborhood.

34

3. By dimension
Category
Sense of
Community
Index (SCI)
Architectural and
town-planning
space
Green areas

Perceived
Residential
Environmental
Quality
(PREQ)

Change in
value

Dimension

People and social

relations

Group membership
Social connections
Need fulfillment
Place attachment
Emotional connection
Building aesthetics

0.27
-0.05
0.11
0.14
0.15
0.26

Building density

0.33
0.13
-0.05
0.04
0.10
0.32

Discretion and civility

Security and tolerance
Sociability and cordiality

Upkeep and care

The renewal changed what it was meant for and increased basically all dimensions,
except the social connections and discretion and civility one.
4. SCI and PREQ based on groups

before
All residents
Old residents
New residents
gender
Male
Female
age
< 18
18 a 29
30 - 54
55 +

1.33

SCI
after
1.76
2.08
1.52

1.10
1.74
-

1.36
2.39

change
0.75

3.50

0.26
0.65

2.79
4.75

0.23
1.65
2.03

before

1.35
2.04
1.87

1.12
0.39
-0.17

PREQ
after
4.63
4.77
4.53

change
1.45

4.19
5.35

1.40
0.60

4.65
4.65
4.50

2.82
0.07
1.75

1.83
4.58
2.75

Summary table of responses based on time living in the neighborhood, gender and age

Different results show up depending of the gender, the age and if the person moved
into the neighborhood before or after the urban renewal. And different from the
35

previous case, all responses have a positive value in both SCI and PREQ.

It is clear that this neighborhood already had a previous value of SCI and
PREQ much higher, and in this case the value increased for the old residents as well,
which have a similar value of PREQ of the new ones. The sense of community of the
old residents is higher than those of the new ones.

36

Both women and male have an increase in the values of SCI and PREQ,
although the first group experienced a higher increase in SCI, while the second group
experienced a higher increase in PREQ. Similar to the other case, the female values
started higher than the male ones.
As for the gender, the only group that experienced a decrease in the SCI is the
one of people of 55 years old or more. However, they experienced a major increase
in PREQ. The group of 30 to 54 experienced an increase in SCI, although an
irrelevant increase in PREQ.

37

7.3.

Image analysis (Kevin Lynch)

Kevin Lynch in his most famous work, Image of the city (1960), highlight the way how
we perceive the city and its parts from a study conducted in three American cities. In
his work, people were questioned about their perception of the city, how they
structured the image of the city in their heads and how they located themselves.
Lynch identified that the elements that people used to form a mental image of the city
can be summarize in five types: paths, boundaries, districts, nodes and landmarks.
He also concluded that this perception is piecemeal, therefore, the time is an
essential element. Furthermore, he verified that nothing is experienced individually,
but in relation with the surroundings; meaning that similar elements, located in
different contexts, acquire different meanings. Moreover, he realized that every
citizen has associations with certain parts of the city, and the image that each one
create is impregnated of memories and meanings.
His work can be utilized to analyze this research. It was possible to notice that
every person understands and see their neighbourhood in their own way and, also,
have their own memories. Asking people, even in a subjective way, if they are able to
percept if the quality of the environment where they live increased, or if their
38

community sense is stronger, and if that is directly related with the urban renewal that
happened in the neighbourhood is a difficult task. As stated, every person acts and
remember things in their own way, which makes the analysis of the surveys difficult,
and even more complicated, since there were only objective questions.
Lynch defends that in order to realize if the population of an area really
understand their region and feel part of it, you must conduct a data collection with the
creation of mental maps, and not objective questions. When asking a person to draw
determined area in a paper, the researcher is able to get into the deepest level of
understanding of what that person experiences in that neighbourhood. He also says
that when asking specific questions, with answers pre-created, it is not possible to
really comprehend how much each person is connect with the place.
7.4.

Segregation within the neighbourhood (Kleinhans et al, 2007)

According to Kleinhans, Priemus and Engbersen (2007) neighbourhoods who have

gone through an urban renewal has a higher chance of experiencing segregation in
the neighbourhood. They conduct three studies in Rotterdam and came to a
conclusion that, while bring people with a higher income to the neighbourhood in fact
helps to increase the social capital in the areas, at the same time, the social
segregation happens. Kleinhans and his colleagues were able to create an image to
represent how this segregation happens (figure 5).

Figure 5: Representation of segregation in neighbourhoods who have been through an urban renewal.
Source: Understanding social capital in recently restructured urban renewal neighbourhoods,
Kleinhans et al (2007).

39

They explain this theory by saying that there are five kind of people related to
a neighbourhood that went through an urban renewal. There are the stayers, who
remain living in the same house. We could notice that in our research we find very
few people of this group; the movers within reconstructed houses, who move to
renovated or newly constructed houses, who represented a few of the respondents;
the movers from surrounding neighbourhoods, which have proved that this
phenomenon really happened in our neighbourhoods, many people that have moved
after the urban renewal proved to be from neighbourhoods adjacent; the newcomers,
who usually move to the new or the renovated houses, as also proved to be true in
our neighbourhoods; and the forced movers, who are forced to move to others areas
in order to open space to the new constructions, we were unable to find an integrant
of this group.
Furthermore,

it

was

possible

to

see

that

the

segregation

in

the

neighbourhoods happened more clearly in The Hoogte. It was quite noticeable how
the area is divided in lower class people, immigrants, elderly people and families.
Every region in this neighbourhood is completely segregated from the others even
though there is no physical division and one area is adjacent with the other. In the
Tuinwijk neighbourhood it was possible to notice that most of the newcomers are
concentrated in the area where the urban renewal happened, but it was not possible
to notice any social segregation besides that.
8. Discussions and Conclusions
This paper has focused in how the qualities aspects influence the community sense
in situations of urban renewal. According to our results, it is possible to get to some
conclusions. First, the urban renewal should focus on the creation of spaces of social
conviviality such as commercial places and common public areas, in order to
increase the social welfare of the population and increase the place attachment,
social capital e help to develop the place identity. The urban renewal that happened
in the Tuinwijk neighborhood is a good example of creating these acquaintanceship
spaces. This social characteristic of the space is important in Dutch urban planning
already for some time, as stated by Wagenaar (2013), and have many aspects to be
accounted such as the built up area, the population, types of jobs and sociability of
the community etc. Not taking them in consideration can lead to a coexistence and
40

not a situation of potential socialization. The cooperation in social occasions is a

mean to think on how to endorse public participation, increase social capital, develop
social trust and foster sense of community and guarantee social cohesion.
Furthermore, we notice that the presence of negative values regarding the
implementation of the urban renewal, can be considered as an indicative of low
acceptance of the new project. The social impacts of it may be due to the lack of a
good profiling of the neighborhood to identify properly the groups, especially those
vulnerable ones such as single mothers, immigrants, low income classes and low
social capital classes. The low amount of people that considered themselves as
participant in the urban renewal process in The Hoogte, for example, is an indicative
of this. Without a proper profile of the region, two consequences were clear: the
project could not fit the demands of all the communities that composes this
population and they could not be informed of the benefits that it may create for them,
thus decreasing its social acceptance. The resistance of the residents of this
neighborhood is another indicative of a lack of dialogue and a context of lack of
social trust.
Moreover, it was possible to conclude that according to our survey, the
perceived community sense and the qualities aspects when the urban renewal is only
a plan, can be highly influenced by the implementation of it. For example, in a
community with a more resistance to an urban renewal, the attempt to make it will
probably be on listing the problems of the neighborhood to show how the renewal is
necessary. In other words, it will market the bad qualities of the neighborhood so a
bad impression of it is created and the renewal, them, become viable. The influence
of this process in the perceived quality and sense of community after the urban
renewal is completed is not completely clear, so research could be done with the
negotiation process of those plans, as well as replicate this kind of study before,
during and after the urban renewal process of a new neighborhood with
disadvantaged communities. The measurement of the imagined changes could be a
way to evaluate on how the social interactions of the process influences the sense of
community and quality perception of the residents.
Additionally, it is important to note that the sense of community here is not
based on the abstract communities that are common sense, but in aspects of social
41

relations that end up creating community relations. This was important in this
research as the Dutch case is characterized by the high density and the historical
interest in promoting social mix. Evaluate the presence of communities based on
rent, ethnicity, color, job, age, gender etc., would ignore social relations between
those groups that are context dependent of each region. However, the analysis made
this kind of abstraction and showed two results: the decrease of elderly people, in
conformity with the bibliography, and a social problem in The Hoogte neighborhood
probably due to the presence of single mothers, but perhaps the lack of appropriated
playgrounds.
Finally, although this research went through some difficulties, we were able to
answer all of our research questions that were established in the beginning of our
work. First, the question about how the urban renewal was associated with the
perceived quality of the built environment and the sense of community. We concluded
that the urban renewal has different results depending of the communities of the
renewed area. In the first neighborhood (The Hoogte), the perceived quality and
sense of community of, for example, old residents is very low, below the values of
their answers about the previous state. However, this same group, in the other
neighborhood (Tuinwijk), has a positive value for both indexes. Also, the urban
renewal can decrease the perceived quality of the environment in a short span of
time, as the place attachment and social relations decrease. This can change in a
long run, as aspects such as upkeep and care, architecture and built-up area are
relatively stable in the long-run, and place attachment increases on time. The change
in sense of community, however, is more complex and context-dependent. Some
groups, such as old people, old residents and women, can experience a decrease in
their sense of community, while new residents can, with three years live in the place,
not develop a sense of community. But, some of those same groups (women and old
residents) can experience an increase in those values in another neighborhood. The
renewal seem to be a opportunity to change the environment and the social relations
attached to it, but, without a proper profiling and assessment of its impacts, a
problematic situation can be created. Vulnerable communities and groups can be
negatively affected and a decrease in social cohesion can happen, instead of the
desired improvement in perceived quality and social relations. The implementation of
the renewal and the quality of its plan seem to be very important for its success.
42

Secondly, the question about how the urban renewal affected the sense of
community had three sub categories, the first asked if have had a positive or
negative impact and the research showed that it depends. In The Hoogte
neighborhood, old residents, women and old people were negatively affected. Male
and people from 30 to 54 were positively affected. In the Tuinwijk, the only group
negatively affected was the one of people of more than 55 years old. The second
sub-question was about which features were responsible for more or less impact,
and we could speculate that relevant features are: the gender - women are more
susceptible; if the women is a single woman; the age range of the resident; and the
location of the resident within the neighborhood. The last sub-question was about if
enforced or denied the place identity. It was possible to notice that in the architects
discourse, the renewal has the aim of enforce the identity of the place. Although the
short time-span to evaluate this feature, it seems that decreased in The Hoogte
neighborhood and increased in the Tuinwijk. The northern expansion of the
neighborhood in a different aesthetics and the lack of participation of the residents in
the renewal process may create a place that they do not identify. In Tuinwijk, the
recovery of the old aesthetics and a good acceptance of the renewal is probably an
element that enforces this identity
Finally, the last question was also divided in two questions. The first was what were
the improved qualities in those neighborhoods, and what we could notice was that in
The Hoogte the care of residents for the neighborhood increased, the architecture
and build-up space quality, specially aesthetics, green areas for relaxing, an increase
care between the neighbors, increase in the security and cordiality and also an
increase in upkeep and care of the neighbors. In the Tuinwijk neighbourhood was
noticeable that the general perception of quality and of community of the residents
increased, as well as the perceived quality and sense of community of old residents
and the care of residents for the neighborhood. Also, the architecture and build-up
space quality, including aesthetics and the perceived density, the green areas for
relaxing, the care between the neighbors and the upkeep and care of the neighbors
also represented an improvement. The second and last questions was how they
affected the place identity. We could notice that the meaning and significance of
places for their inhabitants and users change. Place identity is not the same thing for
everyone. It is also hard to evaluate the effects in place identity with only objective
43

questions, but as far as we were able to analyze, the identity of the neighbourhoods
could be analyzed in accordance with the community sense. In both neighbourhoods
the community sense has decreased to the elderly, but in The Hoogte neighbourhood
the decrease in the SCI was also noticeable in the young womans and former
residents. This showed to us that they probably notice a difference in the identity of
the place, and that is why the community sense decreased.

44

9. References
Arantes et al (2009). A cidade do pensamento nico. Vozes, 5 edition.
Bonaiuto, M., Aiello, A., Perugini, M., Bonnes, M., & Ercolani, A. P. (1999).
Multidimensional perceptions of residential environment quality and neighbourhood
attachment in the urban environment. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 19, 331
352.
Bonaiuto, M., Fornara, F. & Bonnes, M. (2003). Indexes of perceived residential
environment quality and neighbourhood attachment in urban environments: a
confirmation study on the city of Rome. Landscape and Urban Planning, 65, 41-52.
Bonnes, M., Bonaiuto, M., Ercolani, A.P., De Rosa, A.M. (1991). A transactional
perspective on residential satisfaction. Housing Surveys, 99-135.
Carp, F. M., & Carp, A. (1982). Perceived environmental quality of neighborhoods:
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10. Appendix
Appendix 1. The letter.

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Appendix 2. The survey.

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