Environmental Social Science and Urban Environment Management: A Review of Pathways Linking Policies and Planning to Citizens Living by the River

Three case studies are conducted in various environmental, political and regional fields, including the three capitals of European countries through which the Danube river flows, and the densely populated areas of these cities along the river in Hungary, Austria and Slovakia (Fig. 1). The general requirement was that the river should pass through areas where the presence of the river affected the QOL and the SOP of people. Furthermore, all three studies were required to be in the same geographical and political context, so that the recognition of common targets across them is rendered feasible (Gerrits, Pagliarin 2021). In addition, the three case studies were to be situated in an environment populated by multiple professionals or specialists, including researchers, policymakers, government officials, urban professionals and planners, the intention being to use the obtained information in regional planning, psychological studies and environmental health. The location of many urban projects along the river, as well as these locations serving as the target for multiple policy-emergent interventions, highlights the importance of these cities in all three case studies (Mousazadeh 2021). The Danube river has been considered a key element in the planning of stakeholders and researchers in all three cities.

Fig. 1

The criterion for entering this study was having an experience of activity in QOL and SOP programmes in the municipalities of the regions that were located near the river in each city, as well as having been assigned the responsibility to oversee such projects’ implementation. In addition, urban experts and researchers had to have an experience of the particular line of scientific activity employed in an undertaking in that region, or activity experience in any of the programmes related to the QOL and SOP in each of these areas; it was also required of them to have conducted scientific and practical research. In other words, individuals who shared the several required characteristics (Kuckartz, Rädiker 2022) were eligible to participate in the study. These participants were responsible participants in programmes, activities and projects in these areas (Group A). In the second phase, participants were asked to identify the people with whom they had the most collaboration during the programmes and projects in the form of municipal service providers, university researchers and psychologists who assisted them in those activities as the participants of the second stage (Group B). In general, the participants were individuals who had previous specialised knowledge of the research topic (Mirzaei et al. 2022). Participants’ information is provided in Table 1.

For more certainty, the text of the interviews has been sent to the participants for approval (Lan 2020; Rädiker Kuckartz, 2020). All notes were transcribed and in three cases participants made changes in the transcription of interviews because they confirmed that they were in a poor condition at the time of the interviews. Some participants were people who had participated in various international projects in two or three cities. Due to the existence of three different national languages in the three different cities, an attempt was made to recruit participants having an adequate fluency in English to facilitate the research process, although one case, where the researcher translated the information into English, needs to be counted as an exception. First, the main components (codes) were extracted from the interviews, and then the subset of each component was confirmed according to the initial studies and through observations and secondary documents (Consoli 2021). Finally, according to the study of themes and sub-themes and the researcher's interpretations of the interviews, a framework of relationships was presented as a framework in the form of research themes and sub-themes (Table 2).

Fig. 2

The process of identifying the relevant themes from the heart of an interview is considered one of the most interesting phases of content analysis, and is regarded as the final step in the content analysis process. After being forwarded to the participants for their agreement or revision, and after completion of the revision round followed by the participants’ final approval, the finalised transcripts of the transcribed interviews are input into MAXQDA software. MAXQDA 2020 is used to specify themes and sub-themes based on the content of the transcripts, and the themes and sub-themes for the purposes of this software are maintained consistent throughout the entire research (Devan et al. 2020). Table 2 presents the main themes and sub-themes and their repetitions by the participants, reflecting their perspectives on ESS and UEM. The present study has tried to pave the way for other researchers with a new approach, which assumes the form of an ‘elite interviewing’ approach (Scally et al. 2021). The effects of fieldwork as specialised and spatial interviews are presented in this research, which is usually ignored in the literature review of this type of study. Therefore, according to MAXQDA analysis, the concept diagram (Fig. 3) of this research is presented as follows.

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

ESS affects the amount and type of relationships between people in society, and this relationship in social groups dedicated to a particular place increases their social capital and trust. Environmental factors in cities can be used by governments as an attractive reference for creating participatory programmes, increasing citizens’ social responsibility, and ultimately, strengthening ESS. Urban rivers stabilise the environmental participation of citizens by creating memories and evoking the sense of socio-ecological awareness among citizens. Environmental beautification should be provided in local government programmes as environmental education. Environmental issues and citizen participation in urban planning can be addressed through ESS-related research (Nicolosi, Corbett 2018).

An expert indicated:

Citizens know that they have a role to play in the future of their place, thus their sense of belonging will become stronger and will automatically affect their sense of satisfaction, well-being and overall QOL

Fig. 5

The policies and plans implemented by local governments in terms of infrastructure and municipal services as UEM affect how individuals view and judge governments (Samsurijan et al. 2022). Their actions, as a policy tool, can affect the QOL of individuals and lead to their satisfaction (Majumdar et al. 2021). Public facilities and services around a community are vital for the livelihood and harmony of residents as the basic unit of living conditions (Li et al. 2021).

Based on the ESS, UEM and areas adjacent to rivers need new indicators to facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of the role of rivers as an environmental element in strengthening, growing and maintaining the SOP. This requires a review of urban plans and a change in the attitudes of city officials and managers, who do not usually include the concept of ESS in their planning.

Public transportation plays an important role in the sustainable development of the city, the creation of sustainable communities, and the improvement of access to other services and urban infrastructure. These actions ensure the QOL and make people maintain a sense of depending and attaching to their place

An urban project manager verified the following:

In our working group, we have tried to expand green spaces as much as possible, along with the natural factors of the city, because we believe that sustainable urban development depends on the satisfaction of citizens. We also support green space projects offered by researchers and organisations

“Governance is a custom, practice, values and organisations through which power in a state is executed involving the government selection procedure, replacement of government and accountability, rights for citizens, and ability of the state to devise and employ its policies” (Kaufmann et al. 2010). If people distrust government organisations and managers, there will be indifference to policy-making. Particularly, during the COVID-19 crisis, the issue of trust in governments is highly important and vital (He, Ma 2021; Mansoor 2021). Over time, citizens’ trust in positive actions has been assessed by the government (Galle et al. 2020).

The QOL directly affects the efficient view of the political system, and the attitude of trust in government and institutions also has a positive effect on QOL and SOP

The QOL has become a measure of countries’ and governments’ successes in managing the affairs of citizens and their satisfaction. Therefore, measuring the QOL has been on the agenda of various international institutions and governments (Huete-Alcocer et al. 2022; Macků et al. 2022). People's awareness of the critical situation and the creation of empathy and unity between government and citizens require categorisation as an urgent need (Brotosusilo et al. 2022), which it would be possible to fulfil through the implementation of activities, aimed at increasing citizens’ socio-ecological awareness, undertaken by policymakers and governments (AL-Hashimi, AL-Sayed 2022). It is possible to increase the QOL of citizens and their SOP by prioritising programmes (Brunet 2021; Roberts 2020).

Governments need to recognise key factors in order to create prosperity and thus make their citizens happy, especially in times of crisis such as COVID-19. Certainly, creating empathy and citizen participation in urban programmes, in addition to helping the intended goals, can strengthen citizens’ trust in governments

Individuals need a social support from governments and social groups during the COVID-19 pandemic to enhance their SOP and QOL (Alyami et al. 2021; Levkovich et al. 2021). Quarantine is a reasonable and appropriate solution in situations such as coronary heart disease; it can have a long-term effect on mental health, physical education and the process of socialisation and interaction with peers (Imran et al. 2020). Therefore, an understanding of the feelings and QOL of people is essential to properly meet their needs during this epidemic, and governments and health-related organisations must have comprehensive and practical plans for them. Caregivers of patients with COVID-19 initially demonstrated negative emotions (Mosazadeh et al. 2021), but the intensity of these negative emotions decreased over time (Sun et al. 2020).

A psychologist highlighted the following:

During the corona, we saw an increase in the number of mental disorders. Although the possibility of an increase in the incidence of mental disorders was not far-fetched due to long quarantine, loneliness and social isolation, the issue of mental health during the COVID-19 should be the first priority. Vaccination against COVID-19 has significantly contributed to improved mental well-being, mental health and overall QOL. In addition, it has been associated with reduced risk of infection, hospitalisation and mortality

Fig. 6

Festivals and events have been neglected in research, while they can introduce and confirm ESS and pave the way for social relationships, partnerships and well-being of people (Torres 2015). In the long run, participation in festivals and events can have a positive impact on the drive to maintain optimal physical fitness, family ties, social relationships and the overall QOL (Jepson et al. 2019). Holding street festivals alongside natural factors such as urban rivers can also be economically viable and a pilot for UEM, and thus governments and politicians can improve their goals by generating positive economic effects on the regions (Silva et al. 2022). In this way, experts sought to achieve principles such as ESS and UEM, city identity and city liveability; according to different studies, it seems that this goal can be achieved in urban planning by holding festivals and events (Nghiêm-Phú et al. 2021).

Festivals, events and, to a lesser extent, street celebrations play an important role in the prosperity of tourism in any country. The QOL of individuals has been severely affected by the onset of COVID-19. Identifying the critical success factors for recreational tourism destinations around the Danube river can greatly contribute to the sustainable development of tourism in the regions and requires national and regional planning and policies by policymakers and governments

There is a direct function between tourism development and increased QOL of residents (Băndoi et al. 2020), and it is the second most important sub-theme according to the opinions of the participants. Tourism can affect the SOP of local residents by changing the spatial components of tourism destinations (Ghorbani et al. 2021). This issue has been considered in recent years since the success of the tourism industry requires a positive perception of the host community (Tan, Tan 2020; Zhou et al. 2021).

In any country, there are two prominent factors that have a direct impact on the QOL of residents: (1) the legislative willingness or statutory backing that is in operation for the formulation of plans and policies for the preservation and enhancement of the socio-ecological characteristics of the landscape, including the ones pertaining to tourism; and (2) the improvement in the rate of economic development that these measures are able to bring about (Firoiu et al. 2019; Goffi et al. 2019; Mousazadeh et al. 2022). It is emphasised that government support for tourism should be in line with appropriate policies and plans (UEM) to increase the QOL of local people, which are considered to be in the public advantage. These policies and their effects are reflected in the QOL of the host community and improve the QOL of the residents of tourist destinations (Cannonier, Burke 2019).

An international policymaker indicated the following:

During this cycle (i.e. during the early stages of development) there are positive changes in the QOL of destination residents. Increasing the overall level of health, recreation, services, lifestyle and life satisfaction, strengthening the SOP and reducing poverty are achieved through tourism