Neuquen city: differences in environmental image perception between residents and experts.

BARRERA C; FAGGI A; TORRES G; KOMACEK P

Congreso; Congress of the Society for Urban Ecology (SURE); 2013

SURE

The image of a city is formed by a set of cognitive and affective elements. The former ones are those visually relevant attributes by which a city can by identify. Affective elements refer to attitudes and feelings of individuals, developed through past experiences related to that place, its inhabitants, its objects and organizations related to it. The aim of this study was to analyze different opinions about the image of Neuquén (38 ° 57'06 "S and 68 º 04'28" W, 362,673 inhabitants) which is the largest city of the vast Patagonia region in Argentina. This city experienced a rapid and spontaneous growth creating a discontinuous habitat with an irregular configuration. In this study we studied how different stakeholders assessed architectural, landscape, heritage and environmental features in the city. First, to explore the opinion on urban features, a focus group was interviewed in order to construct a questionnaire which was afterwards administered to a second group including residents and experts in architecture, planning and the environment. A Chi square analysis was used to evaluate differences between both groups of respondents. Results showed that residents awarded highest values for the twelve variables surveyed. We also found significant differences between residents and experts in the integration of the public space, which included parks, green and fluvial corridors, traffic restrictions, heritage, water and noise pollution. The results confirmed a two dimensional model of assessment combining subjective (familiarity) and objective (peculiarity) components. No significant differences of opinion were found by attributes that allowed an objective assessment based on what was visually perceived. By contrast other features that could fraught with subjectivity a higher valuation was noticed by most residents.