Exploring the influencing factors of public environmental satisfaction based on socially aware computing

Abstract

As the problem of urban environment and air pollution continues to intensify, the public has developed a very strong perception of the surrounding environment. With this growing perception, their emotions and satisfaction about the environment may also be greatly affected. This article explores the main factors that affect the public’s environmental satisfaction with two main novelties. The first is to develop a data acquisition platform. Based on socially aware computing and a participatory sensing method, the public’s subjective environmental satisfaction is measured by quantifying the collected sensing data. The second is to establish a multiple regression model and a correlation model to analyze the relationship between public’s environmental satisfaction and atmospheric environmental factors, and to compare the influence of each factor. Lanzhou City was taken as a case study, and a total of 33505 data points was acquired over a year of experiment. The experimental results show: (1) Air pollution in Lanzhou affects public environmental satisfaction more strangely than meteorological factors. (2) There is a negative correlation between public environmental satisfaction and different air pollutants in Lanzhou. (3) PM2.5, PM10 and NO2 are the main influencing factors of the public’s environmental satisfaction in Lanzhou. Overall, our study demonstrates a viable method for capturing public environmental satisfaction and identifying probable drivers of it, and our results provide important information for policy makers to prioritize areas that can more effectively improve public satisfaction.