Saturday, November 30, 2013

Top 10 best and worst cities to live

A new ranking measures city characteristics like sprawl, green space, and pollution to determine livability.

Smartplanet.com | 30 Nov. 2013


The Economist Intelligence Unit -- the city rankings specialists -- has a new list claiming the best cities to live. And they have an interesting new livability metrics to judge the world's cities.
The rankings combined EIU's popular "Liveability Index" with a new measure that focuses on spatial characteristics. The "Spatially Adjusted Livability Index" takes into account seven characteristics:
Sprawl: using the "estimated relation between the metropolitan region’s surface and its total population, the overall coherence of the metropolitan form and an estimate of the extent of low density urban fabric."
Green space: based on "the distribution of green spaces within the metropolitan region, the number of local green spaces and the number of metropolitan scale green spaces."
Natural assets: using "Google Earth satellite imagery and information from Open Street Map to assign points to cities based on the natural features" and the number of protected areas around a city center.
Cultural assets: counting the number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the vicinity of the cities.
Connectivity: calculating how many cities can be reached by plane from a city and the average number of flights from that city.
Isolation: based on the number of large cities near a city.
Pollution: using World Health Organisation (WHO)’s Air Pollution in Cities database to calculate air quality with a concentration of particulate matter of over 10 micrometres.
Using these criteria here are the 10 best cities to live in:
  1. Hong Kong
  2. Amsterdam
  3. Osaka
  4. Paris
  5. Sydney
  6. Stockholm
  7. Berlin
  8. Toronto
  9. Munich
  10. Tokyo
And the 10 worst:
  1. Tehran
  2. Nairobi
  3. Lusaka
  4. Phnom Penh
  5. Karachi
  6. Dakar
  7. Abidjan
  8. Dhaka
  9. Lagos
  10. Harare
The top ranked city in the U.S. was Washington, D.C. (14), followed by Chicago (15), New York (16), Los Angeles (17), and San Francisco (18).
Of course, no rankings or measurements are perfect, and this one is no exception. Only 70 of the cities on the original EIU "Liveability Index" had their spatial characterists analyzed, for example.
Nonetheless, spatial characteristics are important -- if sometimes overlooked -- aspects of livability. And it's not just about how many parks cities have. Where cities are located and how they grow can have major impacts on the economy, health and wellness of cities and their inhabitants.
UPDATE: Anthony Ilukwe from Buzzdata points out that this ranking was part of a contest in which EIU partnered with Buzzdata to crowdsource a metric for the best city ranking above. As Ilukwe explained in an email to me, "The best city was determined as a result of an experiment in which the EIU opened their city ranking and cost of living data to the world (public) and invited people to compile a new city index." The winner of the contest was Filippo Lovato, from Italy, who came up with the Spatially Adjusted Livability Index.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ki Media don't have good thing to say much about Cambodia but trying to downgrade Phnom Penh by gathering information from western source and posted on its website. I never heard Vietnamese or Thai have any bad opinions about their country. Stop doing this. Leave Phnom Penh alone.

Anonymous said...

Trov maen heouy 3:08 AM. Haet avey barn chea tumlek mok protes Khmer yeoung? Yok reoung a youn mok psai vinh tov vea som cheang.

Anonymous said...

sometimes i wonder why ki media is so anti-cambodia. if they are khmer, they should help promote cambodia and its cities. why post something other biased countries said about phnom penh and cambodia. that is so not khmer! khmer people should tell them to stop doing to our country!

is ki media for cambodia or against everything cambodia? sometimes, we got to wonder who they really fight cambodia for? ki media has no discretion and disclaimer at all when it comes to cambodia related current event, etc! shame on some ki media employees for being stupid and anti-cambodia! i don't think they work for the interest of cambodia, but only for foreign, biased bosses, whoever they are! i'm sure khmer readers can see it here! what a shame for these fake khmers working at ki media!

Anonymous said...

Cambodia today is the landfield of the foreigners. In the 60s Cambodia was a poor country with a real culture where the poor people never sold to be the slaves. After the war, the young generation have sold to other countries to be the maids...etc....????? This is the hell Cambodia under the dick head leader.

Anonymous said...

I support KI-Media in doing so. We must say the truth to let people know the truth. Try to adapt to democracy. Only communism trying to hide news, hide fact, hide truth.

Anonymous said...

8:27am, try telling that to thailand and vietnam; and those countries called themselves democracy? it's ok to say the truth; however, just don't be biased with cambodia, that's all! telling the truth and bias are two different definitions! i think that's what people are bothered about ki media, i.e., their bias toward only cambodia! i think if they lessen the bias part here, then everything is fine and dandy to criticize cambodia, but by being bias against cambodia only, that is ironically injustice and undemocratic in a truth sense! think about it! pick one, can't be both!

Anonymous said...

Guys/Gals

KI has nothing to do with this, they just posted an actual article published by some westerner sitting behind a desk somewhere who probably never venture out anywhere in the world. Everyone have their own opinion, why bother by it?

Anonymous said...

yea, shit but in Tokyo or Osaka you have to make $150,000 a years to live here...same as Paris or Berlin. In Khmer $160 a month you get Beer and girl

Anonymous said...

PHANOM PENH Yeah right!!
Worst during rain season and vested with Mosqitos and parasites that lives in the flood water. PHANOM PENH city is hell on earth under K.R Hun Sen and his clans Cpp Yiekcong congjor!

Best city in Scamafia today is 'Kien Svay' where Maya Men prostitute herself for my Aunty Kolarb Sar-brothel. After that she turns Lay woman for watt lork at USA and screwed Hochimonk Kimtieng became the talked of the town in Lowell where Khmer people never get along!
*****Worst city is PHANOM PENH,best city is Kien Svay=Amsterdam,where Maya Men loves to be.....!

Kdamjor

Anonymous said...

Japan is a very expensive place to live. A piece of beef may cost $20 or more?

Anonymous said...

of course, cambodia is very affordable and fun, magical, lovely country to vacation. if you want expensive place, then cambodia in not for you! so pick wisely if you are on a budget!

Anonymous said...

3:08 am,
Because those cities that you mentioned doesn't make the list of the worst place to live....idiot. What's there to argue about. If anything, KI is showing us we need to clean up this shit hole.
Stop being naive and ignorant about. Get out of the slump!

Anonymous said...

6:25
KI is for Cambodia. It's you who can't seems to grasp the situation at hand. You keep preaching about the frogs in the well, but you never seems to emerge from it.
Sometime I wonder what does it take to get you morons on the same page.

Anonymous said...

8:27,
Right on! Totally agree.

Anonymous said...

The truth hurts! Lets it be!...the truth shall set you free!....PHANOM PENH City is landfills,trash can dumpster of Yuon's wastes in the water where Khmers wastes people including Hun sen's families loves to drink that wastes urines,feces from Yuon whose drops their wastes on Maekong River.Bravo Hun sen,leading all Khmers people to enjoy drinking yuon's watses.

Kdamjor

Anonymous said...

8:13AM
I agree with you. Cambodia went down hill because of Norodum shit head was drunk with srey youn.

Anonymous said...

Yes it's true. I can manage to stay in Phnom Penh for three days only. Polluted and dirty places and people are so unfriendly. Battambang and Banteay Mean Chey are the same. High ranking people, rich people drive like they alone owned the road as they have no respect for walking people. During my two weeks stay, I see people were so rude. The only people who were smiling and friendly are beggars. Most sellers, including restaurants don't put price tags on what they sell, and therefore the prices are quoted according to their mouth desire. I bought a one way air plane tickets hoping to stay longer there, but to my disappointment I came back in two weeks. Feel like live in the hell.