ИСТИНА

Livability is rather controversial term, to refer to the quality of environment for a full and healthy life. According to the last Global Liveability Index (2021), the overall global score has dropped due to Covid-19 challenges. At the same time, the number of the largest Russian cities' dwellers pinpointed an improvement of urban well-being has significantly increased since 2017. Moscow and Saint-Petersburg are predominantly considered as the most comfortable cities. To estimate the contribution of environmental factors to urban livability a sociological survey basing on the online opinion poll via Google Forms has been conducted in January and February 2022 (N=302). Citizens of Moscow, Moscow oblast, Saint-Petersburg and Leningrad oblast have assessed 23 factors of urban livability on the basis of 5-point-scale. Besides, age, gender, level of education and the approximate places of residences based on postal codes have been collected. According to our results, environmental factors are considered to be less significant than economic and social ones. The most important environmental compounds are related to landscape design of parks and public spaces (8th place), contamination reducing (9th) and design of new parks and public spaces (12th), while conservation of secluded shelters (20th) and expansion of protected areas (18th) are amongst the least important factors. Besides, perceptions of various environmental factors mostly depend on the place of residence rather than demographics. Such opinion polls should be conducted in most of the countries due to current global challenges. Moreover, expert polls may be implemented in the comprehensive assessment of urban mindsets.