Local Identity and Urban Perception in an Intermediate City: Implications for Sustainable Urban Development

Edwin Arango Espinal, Carlos Arango Pastrana and Carlos Osorio Andrade ()
Additional contact information
Edwin Arango Espinal: Marketing Research Group and Research, Innovation, and Development in Specialty Coffees Group (GiiDCE), System of Regionalization, Universidad del Valle, Caicedonia 762540, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
Carlos Arango Pastrana: Facultad de Ciencias de la Administración, Universidad del Valle, Cali 25360, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
Carlos Osorio Andrade: Facultad de Ciencias de la Administración, Universidad del Valle, Cali 25360, Valle del Cauca, Colombia

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 17, 1-17

Abstract: This study analyzes the factors that influence perceptions of the urban environment and local identity, considering them as key dimensions for understanding sustainable urban development in Latin America. Based on data from a representative sample of 701 residents in the medium-sized city of Tuluá, Colombia, the study examines the relationships between public services, safety, mobility, healthcare, and cultural offerings and these citizen perceptions. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), which allowed for the simultaneous evaluation of relationships between formative and reflective latent variables. The results reveal a strong positive relationship between the perception of the urban environment and local identity. Citizen security emerged as the most significant predictor in both constructs, followed by public services. In contrast, satisfaction with medical care, cultural offerings, and urban mobility did not show significant effects on the perception of the urban environment, although mobility had a moderate positive effect on local identity. These findings enrich the debate on urban dynamics in Latin American contexts and provide guidance for the design of public policies that strengthen territorial cohesion and quality of life from an integral perspective. In doing so, the study enhances the understanding of how urban sustainability can be advanced through both structural and perceptual factors.

Keywords: mobility; public services; urban environment; urban culture; sustainable urban development; territorial sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7765/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7765/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:17:p:7765-:d:1736958

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().