What is urban amenity?
‘Urban amenity’ means the things that people appreciate about their urban environment. An amenity can be a tangible thing, like a shopping centre or a park, and it can be an intangible thing, like a feeling of safety or sense of community.
Beyond that broad definition, understanding urban amenity becomes more difficult.
Some aspects of urban amenity, like ‘clean air’ or ‘safety’, are desirable to all communities in all urban areas. Other aspects of urban amenity, like ‘green spaces’ or ‘innovative design’, are desirable to some communities, but not to others. Within communities, too, people may have different ideas about urban amenity.
This variation is what makes defining urban amenity such a challenge. ‘Defining urban amenity’ means consulting the community to learn what urban amenity means to the people who live in the urban environment.
Why define urban amenity?
Defining urban amenity tells you what the community appreciates about its urban environment, and wants to see maintained or improved. This helps you choose the right methods to manage urban amenity, and decide what indicators you will use to monitor changes in urban amenity.
The Project’s definition
To give its research and trials a focus, the Urban Amenity Project defined urban amenity as ‘the liveability of urban environments’. The Urban Amenity Focus Group narrowed this down to ‘what is it about a place that makes us feel good or bad about it?’
Both these definitions still required councils to consult at a local level, to learn exactly what a liveable urban environment meant to the community, or what made a place feel good or bad.
What is a liveable urban environment?
Urban Amenity Project Background
