Liveability defined : the case of Colombo, Sri Lanka

Abstract

The rapid increment in the population in the cities has manifested number of challenges in terms of unauthorized developments, underutilized housing, limitations in infrastructure and services, energy consumption and waste management. The quality of lives of the inhabitants have diminished and cities are becoming less liveable. Hence, the need of a planning approach to address these issues with a sensitivity to the requirements of the inhabitants has been felt for some time. The concept of liveability which is a subset of the concept of sustainability is perceived as a philosophy to face the urban conundrum. Liveability has been assessed using liveability indexes which have marketability purpose. The representation of liveability through the existing indexes is unlike to address the issues of urbanization. Thus, this study advocates to define and characterize liveability to enhance the quality of lives of inhabitants in Sri Lanka. Based on a pragmatist research philosophy, an abductive research approach is used for the study. Firstly, an extensive literature review is conducted, followed by a case study strategy to contextualize the literature findings. Data collection is done via expert interviews, document review to define liveability for the case. Six liveability characteristics, twenty-five attributes and seventy-one indicators were distinguished prioritized using Analytical Hierarchy Process. Challenging the existing vague definitions, liveability was defined as the satisfactory quality of lives of inhabitants achieved through its balanced socio-economic environment reflected through the character of the city of Colombo with quality and proximate services, connectivity to amenities through proper infrastructure and preserved natural environment. Balanced socio-economic environment was prioritized over other characteristics. A global weight was assigned to these elements which was utilized as the weighting factor of the developed liveability index to enhance the quality of lives of the inhabitants of cities. Unlike current liveability indexes with marketability purposes, the developed liveability indexes adapt a participatory approach to address the issues in the cities with a liveability perspective.