A. The Method

To assess urban conditions, the administrators were asked to judge each of 39 specific conditions, indicating for each whether this was an Urgent Major problem, a Serious problem, or merely a Minor problem. For each condition they could also indicate that it was not a problem, but was a Satisfactory condition, or even an Advantage for the city. Each condition was scored from 1 for urgent major problem to 5 for advantage. This permits us to examine the overall score for each city and each country, and the overall score for all the cities together. We can also examine the extent that any specific condition or group of similar conditions constitutes a Problem or Advantage for the city. Appendix IV lists all cities with the assessment given for each condition.

The 39 conditions were grouped under 12 major categories as follows.

1. General:
   Health, Educational Level.
   
2. Utilities:
   Water, Sewage, Garbage Disposal.
   
3. Transportation:
   Public Transportation, Traffic Volume, Traffic Flows.
   
4. Housing:
   Population without Shelter, Low Cost Housing, Middle Income Housing, High Income Housing.
   
5. Employment:
   General Unemployment, Male Unemployment, Female Unemployment, Child Labor.
   
6. Health and Family Planning:
   Primary Health Care, Hospital Care, Family Planning Services, Social Welfare Services.
   
7. Education:
   Primary Education, Secondary Education, Vocational Education, Tertiary Education.
   
8. City Personnel:
   Quality, Quantity
   
9. City Revenues:
   Size of Revenues Base, Control of Revenues
   
10. Crime
    Violent Crime, Property Crime, Prostitution, Organized Crime, Drug Abuse
    
11. Pollution:
    Industrial Waste, Sewage, Automobile Exhaust. Noise Pollution
    
12. Industrial Change:
    Rapid Industrial Growth, Manufacturing Decline

In each of the 12 groups, there was also space for indicating any "Other" conditions the administrators found to be important for their cities.

For Japan questions on education, family planning, crime and industrial change were omitted as they were considered less relevant in that context. The Japanese enquiry also included more specific questions on social welfare (Elderly, Handicapped, Children and Other Social Welfare Problems) and on transportation (Bus, Subway, Other Public Transportation, Traffic Flows, Illegal Parking, and Other Transportation Problems).