Environmental quality of urban life in small towns: An explorative study of stated and revealed preferences on the periphery of a Czech metropolis

ABSTRACT The purpose of the article is to address the gap in approaches to assessing the quality of urban life (QoUL) in small towns, with a particular focus on the environmental dimension of the QoUL concept. The authors examined a statistical relation between life satisfaction and QoUL in small towns, detected the position of the environment among other dimensions of QoUL, and explored the link between the stated and revealed preferences of residents in a small town on the outer margin of the metropolitan area of Prague, the capital of Czechia. The results revealed a pathway to assess trade-offs in QoUL posed by the varying effects of the proximity of small towns to larger urban centres. The discussion focuses on the limitations of exploring stated and revealed preferences regarding the use of the QoUL concept in urban planning. The authors conclude that the worst QoUL compared with overall life satisfaction resulted from the ‘bounding effect’ of those who were socially and economically bound to the study location. Additionally, they conclude that the environmental concerns represented an important but not major dimension of QoUL, as was also reflected in election manifestos and results.