Comfortable urban environment: Definition and term concept

The problem of creating a comfortable urban environment in the Russian Federation is nationwide. The authors propose to pay attention to the essence of the concept of “comfortable urban environment”. There is no unified definition of it currently, which leads to discrepancies and substitution of concepts. To formulate their proposal for the definition, the authors separately study approaches to the interpretation of “urban environment” and “comfort”. Considerable attention is paid to the connection with the concept of human well-being (current and future), the long-term impact of the urban environment on the physical, mental and social well-being of a person, including the impact on the environment and its corresponding consequences. Based on this, the authors construct an ideological concept of the “comfortable urban environment”. They describe it as a structure that absorbs the impact of global processes (climate change, growing urbanization, segregation, and densifying cities) and ensures population well-being and reduces the negative impact on the environment. The authors also make a definition to the term “comfortable urban environment”. The obtained results reveal the essence of the term, thus offering the authors to consider this concept more comprehensively in further research. Moreover, this study can help clarify the parameters of the urban environment that characterize comfortable living conditions, as well as the principles of architectural and planning organization of this type of environment, paying special attention to ensuring the well-being of the population and absorbing the negative impact on the environment as a whole.