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The principal objective of any strategy to improve urban environment is the enhancement of the quality of life for its citizens. In order to determine the quality of an urban environment, it is necessary to use appropriate techniques that would enable us to monitor and measure those variables which, over a certain period of time, will have significant impact on the quality of the environment.
During the past, and up until recently, evaluation techniques have been generally based on the application of descriptive-qualitiative methods, and ideal criteria. Experience in recent decades has shown that the design, compilation, and application of the
so-called environmental quality indices is a very valuable tool for evaluating the quality of the urban environment. This tool has great potentials for the evaluation of policies, plans, ideas, and innovations that have been applied in the urban environment.
This paper intends to introduce a model, after following a brief review of a number of descriptive and traditional evaluation techniques, and discussing a few analytical methods.