Public Perceptions Of Air Quality Research Articles

Why do we misperceive air pollution? A scoping review of key judgmental biases

AbstractAir pollution stands as a primary environmental factor influencing mortality globally. Despite its significance, individuals frequently struggle to assess the risks associated with polluted environments. This paper delves into the psychological mechanisms that contribute to the discrepancy between public perception of air quality and objective measurements. Through an extensive literature review spanning several decades, six fundamental heuristics that underpin misperceptions of air quality are identified and examined. The article further explores the theoretical and practical implications of acknowledging these biases in the development of urban environmental policies. By addressing judgmental biases, urban planners can improve the communication of risk information among lay people and ensure that environmental improvements are acknowledged and valued by all members of the community.

Understanding Public Perception of Air Quality in the Urban Environment of Central Asia: An Empirical Assessment Using Structural Equation Modelling

Public awareness and understanding of air quality in Central Asia remain considerably low. The present study assesses the perception, attitude and environmental knowledge of local air quality among adult urban residents ( n = 870) in a city with high air pollution among cities of Central Asia: Astana, Kazakhstan. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to investigate the causal relationship between perceived air quality, environmental literacy and willingness to pay for environmental protection. Over half of the Kazakhstani population has higher education, yet environmental literacy remains low compared to countries with fewer university graduates. Participants’ age, education and health status significantly affected ( p < .001) their environmental knowledge and awareness. The SEM indicates knowledge as a major determinant in improving public awareness and perception of air pollution. The present study provides valuable insights for researchers and governmental institutions to promote a better understanding of air quality within a rapidly growing urban environment.

Image-based Air Quality Prediction using Convolutional Neural Networks and Machine Learning

Air quality has become a major public concern due to the significant threat posed by air pollution to human health, and rapid and efficient monitoring of air quality is crucial for pollution control and human health. In this paper, deep learning and image-based models are proposed to estimate air quality. To evaluate the level of air quality, the model collects feature information from landscape photos taken by mobile cameras. To analyze public perception of air quality, researchers collected questionnaire data from 257 people. The Smartpls method allows for structural analysis to determine the influence of each variable on other variables and the extent of their contribution to the final variable of overall perception of air quality. This study aims to develop a novel approach for air quality prediction using image-based data and machine learning techniques. The research used convolutional neural networks to extract features from images and predict the air quality index. The study was conducted using a dataset obtained from a network of air quality sensors across the city. The results of the study showed that the proposed approach can provide accurate air quality predictions compared to the traditional methods. The developed model was able to capture the complex relationships between air quality and environmental factors, such as temperature and humidity. The implications of the study suggest that image-based air quality prediction can be a powerful tool for improving public health and reducing the impact of air pollution. The study's findings hold promise for a healthier future by facilitating more effective pollution management and improved air quality regulation. The study's primary novelty lies in its approach to air quality prediction by deploying convolutional neural networks to extract image features for predicting air quality indices. This application of advanced machine learning techniques to image-based data for air quality estimation marks a significant advancement.

Perceptions of NO2 Exposure and Health in a Cohort of Low-Income Adults in Mysore, India

Urban air quality remains a major concern for public health officials and the general public, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where baseline exposures are high. In India, air quality awareness campaigns are major efforts of governments at every level. Yet, our understanding of relationships between ambient air pollution exposure, public perceptions of air quality, and concerns about associated health risks is incomplete. We asked 609 respondents in low-income neighborhoods in Mysore, India, about perceptions of air pollution exposures and self-efficacy, or their ability to act to reduce the health effects of air pollution in their community. Based on lung function tests, we found a 9.3% prevalence (standard error: 0.8%) of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma. An additional 21% of the population reported experiencing chronic cough, phlegm, wheezing, and difficulty walking due to shortness of breath, and 27% of the participants reported visiting a hospital or clinic in the previous 6 months due to chest pain, breathing issues or allergic reaction. On air pollution perception, we found 30% of the respondents believed air pollution in their own neighborhood was worse than pollution in nearby neighborhoods, and 80% of respondents believe air pollution levels in the city of Mysore have been detrimental to their own health. Only 1.5% of respondents prioritized minimizing disruption of their daily routine due to air pollution, and less than 1% of respondents believed they could act individually or collectively within their community to reduce the impacts of their pollution exposure. Public awareness campaigns should be combined with education on ways the public can protect themselves from the adverse impacts of pollution exposure, and should be tailored explicitly for targeting vulnerable populations such as those living in low-income neighborhoods that experience high ambient air pollution levels.

What matters in public perception and awareness of air quality? Quantitative assessment using internet search volume data

Recently, the issue of air quality in South Korea reached an unprecedented level of social concern regarding public health, quality of life, and environmental policies, even as the level of particulate matter less than 10 μm (PM10) showed a decreasing trend. Why have social concerns emerged in recent years, specifically after 2013–2014? This study aims to understand how people perceive air quality apart from the measured levels of airborne pollutants using internet search volume data from Google and NAVER. An empirical model that simulates the air quality perception index (AQPI) is developed by employing the decay theory of forgetting and is trained by PM10, visibility, and internet search volume data. The results show that the memory decay exponent and the accumulation of past memory traces, which represent the weighted sum of past perceived air quality, play key roles in explaining the public’s perception of air quality. A severe haze event with an extremely long duration that occurred in the year 2013–2014 increased public awareness of air quality, acting as a turning point. Before the turning point, AQPI is more influenced by sensory information (visibility) due to the low awareness level, but after the turning point it is more influenced by PM10 and people slowly forget about air quality. The retrospective AQPI analysis under a low level of awareness confirms that perceived air quality is indeed worst in the year 2013–2014. Our results provide a better understanding of public perception of air quality, and will contribute to the creation of more effective regulatory policies. It should be noted, however, that the proposed model is primarily meant to diagnose historic public perception and that more sophisticated models are needed to reliably predict perception of air quality.

Public awareness and support for environmental protection-A focus on air pollution in peninsular Malaysia.

As in many nations, air pollution linked to rapid industrialization is a public health and environmental concern in Malaysia, especially in cities. Understanding awareness of air pollution and support for environmental protection from the general public is essential for informing governmental approaches to dealing with this problem. This study presents a cross-sectional survey conducted in the Klang Valley and Iskandar conurbations to examine urban Malaysians’ perception, awareness and opinions of air pollution. The survey was conducted in two languages, English and Malay, and administered through the online survey research software, Qualtrics. The survey consisted of three sections, where we collected sociodemographic information, information on the public perception of air quality and the causes of air pollution, information on public awareness of air pollution and its related impacts, and information on attitudes towards environmental protection. Of 214 respondents, over 60% were positive towards the air quality at both study sites despite the presence of harmful levels of air pollution. The air in the Klang Valley was perceived to be slightly more polluted and causing greater health issues. Overall, the majority of respondents were aware that motor vehicles represent the primary pollution source, yet private transport was still the preferred choice of transportation mode. A generally positive approach towards environmental protection emerged from the data. However, participants showed stronger agreement with protection actions that do not involve individual effort. Nonetheless, we found that certain segments of the sample (people owning more than three vehicles per household and those with relatives who suffered from respiratory diseases) were significantly more willing to personally pay for environmental protection compared to others. Implications point to the need for actions for spreading awareness of air pollution to the overall population, especially with regards to its health risks, as well as strategies for increasing the perception of behavioural control, especially with regards to motor vehicles’ usage.

People, place and pollution: Investigating relationships between air quality perceptions, health concerns, exposure, and individual- and area-level characteristics

An extensive body of research has demonstrated that air pollution exposure is associated with adverse health outcomes. Urban air quality remains a major concern for both public health officials and the general public. In the United States, air quality public awareness campaigns are major efforts of governments at every level. Yet, our understanding of relationships between ambient air pollution exposure, public perceptions of air quality, and concerns about associated health risks is incomplete. We examined 2869 individual responses to annual air quality public awareness surveys administered between 2009 and 2012 in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Our study had three objectives: 1) examine the spatial distribution of PM2.5 and O3 exposures, pollution perceptions, and pollution health concerns; 2) explore relationships between individual- and area-level characteristics and PM2.5 and O3 exposure; 3) and examine cross-sectional associations between individual- and area-level characteristics, as well as PM2.5 and O3 exposures, and pollution perception and pollution health concerns. We found inverse spatial patterns between the distribution of O3 and PM2.5 exposure levels as well as between areas where respondents perceived air pollution as worsening and areas where residents had higher concern about the health effects of pollution exposure. We also found inverse relationships between individual- and area-level demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and O3 and PM2.5 exposure. Individual-level characteristics were significantly related to pollution perceptions, while both individual- and area-level characteristics were significantly related to pollution health concerns. Public awareness campaigns should be combined with education on ways the public can protect themselves and tailored explicitly for targeting vulnerable populations (e.g., elderly, and persons with respiratory problems) and areas both socioeconomically vulnerable (e.g., higher racial segregation and poverty) and experiencing higher pollution exposure (e.g., O3 and PM2.5).

Understanding Public Views about Air Quality and Air Pollution Sources in the San Joaquin Valley, California.

The San Joaquin Valley of California has poor air quality and high rates of asthma. Surveys were collected from 744 residents of the San Joaquin Valley from November 2014 to January 2015 to examine the public's views about air quality. The results of this study suggest that participants exposed to high PM2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in size) concentrations perceived air pollution to be of the worst quality. Air quality in the San Joaquin Valley was primarily perceived as either moderate or unhealthy for sensitive groups. Females perceived air pollution to be of worse quality compared to males. Participants perceived unemployment, crime, and obesity to be the top three most serious community problems in the San Joaquin Valley. Participants viewed cars and trucks, windblown dust, and factories as the principle contributors to air pollution in the area. There is a need to continue studying public perceptions of air quality in the San Joaquin Valley with a more robust survey with more participants over several years and seasons.

Inferring Atmospheric Particulate Matter Concentrations from Chinese Social Media Data.

Although studies have increasingly linked air pollution to specific health outcomes, less well understood is how public perceptions of air quality respond to changing pollutant levels. The growing availability of air pollution measurements and the proliferation of social media provide an opportunity to gauge public discussion of air quality conditions. In this paper, we consider particulate matter (PM) measurements from four Chinese megacities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu) together with 112 million posts on Weibo (a popular Chinese microblogging system) from corresponding days in 2011–2013 to identify terms whose frequency was most correlated with PM levels. These correlations are used to construct an Air Discussion Index (ADI) for estimating daily PM based on the content of Weibo posts. In Beijing, the Chinese city with the most PM as measured by U.S. Embassy monitor stations, we found a strong correlation (R = 0.88) between the ADI and measured PM. In other Chinese cities with lower pollution levels, the correlation was weaker. Nonetheless, our results show that social media may be a useful proxy measurement for pollution, particularly when traditional measurement stations are unavailable, censored or misreported.

Personal and public perception of air quality in eight European cities: the CITI-SENSE Citizens’ Observatory Toolbox

Introduction: The Citizens’ Observatory Toolbox (COT) has been developed within the CITI-SENSE project (partly funded by the EU FP7-ENV-2012 under grant agreement no. 308524) for collecting citizen-contributed observations of air quality. Methods: Public perception on air quality (AQ) is gathered online using two tools: the CityAir smartphone application (v1.3.1, Android and iOS) that collects and geolocates personal perception in real-time, and the CivicFlow AQ questionnaire that collects general knowledge and perception in cities. The tools were deployed in Barcelona, Belgrade, Edinburgh, Haifa, Ljubljana, Oslo, Ostrava and Vienna to study individual perception on level and source of air pollution emissions and public knowledge of AQ issues and associated information services. The users of these tools are evaluating them for usefulness. Results: The CityAir application, so-far with around a thousand users and growing in popularity, is collecting and visualising (and sharing via social media) observations in the eight project cities, identifying emission hotspots particularly in Barcelona and Ostrava. Beyond the project, it is also being used in the United States, India and Iran. The CivicFlow questionnaire, so-far with over a thousand respondents, is showing that the majority of them in regards to AQ: are “very interested” in it; describe it as “quite poor”; think that it affects their health “a lot”, and; find currently-available AQ information as only “moderately useful”. The CityAir responses are being compared (spatiotemporally) to AQ measured by the same individuals using portable AQ micro-sensor nodes, and also to stationary node network-modeled values for emission characterisation. Conclusions: CityAir and CivicFlow provide geolocated feedback on levels and emission sources of air pollution. As part of the COT, they are being made available online upon completion of the CITI-SENSE project, to assist environmental health advocacy and policy.

Association between Pollution and Public Perception of Air Quality-SEQAP, a Risk Perception Study in France

Many studies have been published in environmental perception field, including atmospheric air pollution. However, most of them only used opinion questions to quantify public perception of air quality. On the other hand, few studies linked perception of air quality and objective measurement of air pollution. The SEQAP project aims to construct and validate a scale to measure air quality perception (QAP) in order to study the relation between perception and pollution concentrations, and the representations and risk perception associated to pollution, using epidemiological and sociological approaches.

From the Editors

From the Editors

The SEQAP Study: Studying the Relationships Between Air Pollution Public Perception and Pollutants Concentrations

P-382 Abstract: Air pollution may cause cardio-respiratory diseases, and more often annoyance reactions. Despite the large populations exposed to air pollution in our cities and numerous epidemiological study demonstrating relationships between air pollution and health, few studies have been published on the quantitative relations between the exposure to pollution and the public perception of air quality. The SEQAP epidemiological study has for main objective to measure the relationships between adult perception of air pollution and air pollutants concentrations measured by monitoring networks in several French towns. 3000 subjects will be randomly selected from adults living in 7 cities having different levels of air pollutants exposure. From each city, 450 subjects aged 25–65 will be chosen. Interview will be conducted by phone, including questions on socio-demographic characteristics, occupation, smoking habits, household members, access to a car, health, plus an air pollution perception scale and a validated quality of life scale. On a sub-sample of this population, sociological interviews will be conducted in order to improve understanding of the factors shaping public perceptions. First, validation study on the an air pollution perception scale will be realized with factorial design and Rash model; then multivariate analysis will measured the relationships between the prevalence of annoyance reactions to air pollution and the level of air pollution measured in each town. In the framework of this project, we conducted two preliminary studies: (i) we first realized a typology of the 54 French cities having a air pollution monitoring network, in order to classify cities with homogeneous exposure to pollutants; (ii) we also constructed an air pollution perception verbal scale. This scale contains questions on annoyance reactions in different fields: health, daily life, local environment and quality of life. This scale is being tested on 100 subjects and first results on the validation study will be presented. This work is funded by ADEME/PRIMEQUAL (grant n° 0410C0111).

Examining Localized Patterns of Air Quality Perception in Texas: A Spatial and Statistical Analysis

Environmental and human health issues associated with outdoor air pollution, such as ozone, sulfur dioxide, and other pollutants in metropolitan regions, are an area of growing concern for both policy officials and the general public. Increasing attention from the news media, new health data, and public debate over the effectiveness of clean air regulations have raised the importance of air quality in the public consciousness. While public perceptions of air quality have been studied thoroughly dating back to the 1960s, little empirical research has been conducted to explain the spatial aspects of these perceptions, particularly at the local level. Although recent studies suggest characteristics of local setting are important in shaping perceptions of air quality, the roles of proximity, neighborhood characteristics, and location have not been clarified. This study seeks to improve understanding of the major factors shaping public perceptions of air quality by examining the spatial pattern of local risk perception, the role of socioeconomic characteristics in forming these perceptions, and the relationship between perceived and scientifically measured air pollution. First, we map the spatial pattern of local air quality perceptions using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) across the Dallas and Houston metropolitan areas. Next, we explain these perceptions through local contextual factors using both bivariate correlations and multivariate regression analysis. Results indicate that perceptions of air quality in the study areas are not significantly correlated with air quality based on readings of air monitoring stations. Instead, perceptions appear to be influenced by setting (urban vs. rural), state identification, access to information, and socioeconomic characteristics such as age, race, and political identification. We discuss the implications of the findings and provide direction on how further research can provide a deeper understanding of the local contextual factors influencing public perceptions.

Public perceptions of air quality and quality of life in urban and suburban areas of London.

A comparative study was undertaken at two different sites (one urban, one suburban) in Greater London in order to examine whether there was a relationship between publicly available air quality data and the public's perception of air quality. Perceptions of air quality and its role as a potential quality of life indicator was also investigated. A total of 200 people were interviewed in Wood Green and Wimbledon in 1999 and air quality data were obtained simultaneously from the nearest appropriate monitoring station. The study has enabled a comparison between the public's perception of air quality and the actual monitored concentration values. The survey results reveal how seriously the public regards air pollution from road traffic in terms of their quality of life and identifies the attitudes of the public to nuisance from road traffic. The results reveal that the public's perception of air quality is not a reliable indicator of the actual levels of air pollution in their area. The results also revealed that air pollution issues generated as a result of road traffic are of high importance in terms of people's quality of life when compared to other aspects of their quality of life. The study revealed that residents in the urban area (Wood Green) were more disturbed by road traffic than residents in the suburban area (Wimbledon). Out of all the disturbances listed, it was found that residents were more disturbed by vehicle-derived fumes, dust and dirt than other aspects of road traffic related nuisance. The TELETEXT/CEEFAX service on air quality was little used by the public as a means of obtaining information on air pollution.

Urban Air Quality in North‐East England: Exploring the Influences on Local Views and Perceptions

We set out to explore potential influences on public views about urban air quality in two different, but geographically close, districts in North-East England via a postal survey. The neighborhoods surveyed were chosen to contrast material deprivation, proximity to industry, and two districts (Teesside and Sunderland), and the respondents within them were contrasted by their gender, age, and illness status. The strongest influences on views about local air quality were found to be proximity to industry, residence in Teesside, and, to a lesser extent, age and illness status. This suggests that neighborhood characteristics play an important role in shaping public perceptions of air quality.