Environmental factors affecting living comfort perception in different localities in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Living in comfort and the consequent healthier life is a reaction to the environment indicated by the absence of environmental stressors. The present study investigated the factors influencing the living comfort perception in an urban and a non-urban locality in Sri Lanka. A survey using a pre-tested questionnaire was carried out to solicit the people’s perceptions on identified environmental factors randomly selecting fifty households from each locality. It was found that the factors i.e., water bodies, space, natural beauty, and biodiversity associated with the living comfort positively in the urban locality while the association was neutral in non-urban locality. The factors i.e., stray animals, dust and garbage negatively influenced living comfort in both urban and non-urban localities. The factors i.e., temperature, insects, flood, noise, smoke, vibration, and bad odor negatively influenced living comfort in the urban locality while the influence was neutral in non-urban locality. Further, the factors i.e., rainfall, wind, humidity and drinking water were not important for living comfort perception in both localities. The factors identified in this study are useful in zoning the localities according to their suitability in relation to public comfort perception. Further, the identified factors can be manipulated to improve the living comfort perception in urban and non-urban localities except for climatic factors.