The paper presents results from a transdisciplinary project (Build4People) that aims to enhance quality of life through sustainable urban transformation in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.
The concept of urban quality of life has a long multidisciplinary research tradition, bringing together fields such as human geography, sociology, and environmental psychology. Building on this, the project's conceptual framework integrates sociological, psychological, and geographical perspectives.
Based on a representative standardized household survey (N = 750 face-to-face interviews), subjective quality of life was assessed in relation to psychological factors (people sphere), such as perceived self-efficacy, general stress, coping capability, and locus of control; environmental assessments (environment sphere), including climate, the built environment, and public urban green; and resilience resources, such as social cohesion, satisfaction with social relationships, and neighbourhood-level place attachment.
The findings show that satisfaction with social relationships was the strongest predictor of subjective quality of life, followed by perceived self-efficacy, coping capability, general stress, and place attachment. Interestingly, perceived environmental stressors appear to exert a more indirect impact, moderated by both place attachment and perceived general stress. Place attachment seems to play an integrative role, linking several other factors, such as the evaluation of urban green, social cohesion, environmental stressors, self-efficacy, and coping capabilities.
Results are presented and discussed with respect to theoretical implications and starting points for evidence-based sustainable urban policies and practical interventions aimed at fostering well-being.