Urban environment qualityand citizens’ involvement in its development (in the case of the Northwestern federal district)

The relevance of the study is due to the growth of urban population for which the issues of habitat quality are of paramount importance. The quality and comfort of the environment determine the municipalities; competitiveness and their sustainable development. Citizen participation in urban environment development contributes to the growth of public satisfaction with the quality of life and increases the level of trust in municipal government. The purpose of the research is to identify problem areas and reveal urban development areas that are promising in terms of attracting citizens to their development. The information base was made up of data from domestic systems for assessing the quality of urban environment, a sociological survey of the Vologda Oblast population (N = 1900; the sampling error does not exceed 3%). The article defines the municipalities of the Northwestern Federal District with a favorable and unfavorable urban environment, and determines problem areas. The work compares objective indicators of the quality of urban environment with the perception of citizens or their actions to improve urban environment. The author has identified two trends: coincidence and divergence of estimates for individual indicators. Most often, the Vologda Oblast population expects that decisions on urban problems will be made by local governments, while the citizens themselves do not expect that they will be involved in the territories’ development. For residents of large cities in the region, the following areas of activity of public associations are in demand: territory’s development, protection of residents’ interests, environmental protection, animal protection, and organization of leisure and cultural activities. Population of district centers is less active in these areas. The author has concluded that one of the mechanisms for overcoming barriers to civic participation can be dissemination of positive experience of involving population in urban improvement.