Spatial analysis of the effect of air pollution on urban livability (case study: Arak city)

Nowadays, high population density caused by urbanization has put the livability of cities at risk of collapse in different dimensions such as economic, social, physical and environmental. Therefore, this research seeks to analyze and evaluate one of the most important factors affecting the livability of cities (air pollution) in Arak metropolis. The required data and information have been collected by studying documents, referring to organizations and in the form of a survey (questionnaire). The statistical population of the research of Arak city and the statistical sample are 384 citizens of the neighborhoods of Arak city. GIS tool and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) are used to analyze the data. The results show that the indicators of livability in Arak are not favorable. On the other hand, the condition of indicators of the Air pollution are in unfavorable conditions due to the presence of large factories and companies (petrochemical, Hepco, Iralco, etc.), heavy traffic, the old fabric of the city in some areas. As the results of the spatial analysis of the GWR model show according to the R2 statistic above 50% the livability of Arak city in economic, physical and environmental dimensions is affected by the state of air pollution indicators such as (PM2.5, PM10, SO2, CO2).The eastern, southern, and southwestern neighborhoods of Arak are more affected by this issue. Only the social index with R2=48 and almost average has a lower effectiveness (50%) than other Indicators. Also, the results of spatial analysis show the state of urban livability approaches the desired state by distancing urban neighborhoods from polluting sources.