Urban facilities in the quality of life research: a case study of Banská Bystrica city (Central Slovakia)

Abstract

The presented paper deals with the quality of urban life (QoUL), looking at urban facilities. The main goal of this study was the QoUL comparison of selected basic settlement units (BSU) in the city of Banská Bystrica (Central Slovakia). For this purpose, the mean spacing method, method of availability of facility per 1,000 inhabitants, as well as multi-criteria statistical analysis techniques were implemented. For micro-level analysis of disparities, the coefficient of variation was used. In all cases, the BSUs with the highest functional variability reached the most favourable results. Al-though most studies using objective indicators usually rely on secondary data sources, this paper provides us with primary data thanks to the field research. In the future, such studies may be used for urban planning, as well as for a housing search based on rational choice.