Livable and Sustainable Cities Explorations of the City Soul and Energy-Efficient Housing based on Swedish Data on Citizens’ Preferences

Contemporary cities face many challenges, none the least from an urban planning perspective. Global climate change is putting pressures on planning for combatting and adapting to a warmer climate, increased levels of rainfall, etc. Urbanization urges planners to satisfy an increased need for housing in an already dense environment, without compromising the livability of neighborhoods. The overall theme of this thesis is the livability and sustainability of cities. The aim is to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of residents’ opinions and preferences regarding various aspects of livability and sustainability. Specifically, two of the four included papers discuss energy efficient housing and two the identity/soul of the city and its neighborhoods. The papers are empirically oriented and rest on relatively large quantitative materials. All data used are Swedish. The papers might still be internationally interesting considering Sweden’s relatively long tradition of ambitious urban planning and environmental policy. The database used in the first two articles contains around 77,000 observations of individual households and single-family homes. The residential survey used in the two final papers was sent to a random sample of 6,600 residents in four cities, and the final dataset contains complete responses from over 2,500 individuals. Regression analysis is the primary analytical method used in all papers. The results indicate a preference for sustainable housing, in terms of a significant willingness to pay for heat pumps, i.e., for attributes that both reduce the energy consumption and are easily observed when visiting the house. The results further show that the perception of a strong city soul is linked to feelings of positive relations to the city as well as to positive perceptions of its physical characteristics. In particular, feelings of attachment, belonging, and pride as well as perceptions of aesthetics, arts, and symbolic features, seem to be linked to a strong city soul. Similar results are found regarding the neighborhood soul. The research presented in this thesis contributes to related literature in several ways. It provides insight to Swedish residents’ preferences and opinions concerning both energyefficient housing and the soul of the city and its neighborhoods. All in all, the four papers show that a citizen perspective based on carefully designed databases and appropriate analytical tools can be used by planners to gain new insights supporting urban livability and sustainability efforts.