A direct observation method for auditing large urban centers using stratified sampling, mobile GIS technology and virtual environments

Table 1 Each SSOI item contained five Likert response values: extremely poor, below average, average, above average, and excellent (for qualitative items) or none, few, some, many and lots (for quantitative items)

Item	Auditor 1	Auditor 2	Mean
Cleanliness of streets and properties	0.100	0.152	0.126
Presence of trees	0.038	0.091	0.064
Quality of trees	0.049	0.050	0.049
Landscaping	0.220	0.086	0.153
Flowers and shrubs	0.079	0.047	0.063
Houses well-spaced	0.085	0.204	0.144
Upkeep of homes	0.284	0.244	0.264
Presence of outdoor furniture	0.037	0.032	0.034
Quality of outdoor furniture	0.051	0.034	0.042
Pedestrian infrastructure	0.058	0.061	0.059

Item weightings used in deriving the aesthetics index score, \(s_{i \cdot }\), for each audit location were determined as the mean value from both auditors—see text for details

ISSN: 1476-072X