Objective air quality index versus subjective perception: which has a greater impact on life satisfaction?

Although the PM 2.5 concept was put forward in 1997, it came into Chinese people's sight in 2011, and became a household name in 2013 in China. Previous studies did not involve this indicator, so we need to re-examine and compare the effects of objective air quality data and subjective percepti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environment, development and sustainability development and sustainability, 2022-05, Vol.24 (5), p.6860-6877
Main Authors: Shi, Xingmin, Li, Xueping, Chen, Xieyang, Zhang, Luping
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air
Air pollution
Air quality
Airborne particulates
China
Chinese people
cities
computer software
Earth and Environmental Science
Ecology
Economic Geology
Economic Growth
Environment
Environmental Economics
Environmental Management
Geographic information systems
issues and policy
Life satisfaction
Megacities
Nitrogen dioxide
Outdoor air quality
Particulate matter
Perception
Pollutants
Regression analysis
Regression models
Social factors
Sulfur
Sulfur dioxide
Sustainable Development
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Summary:Although the PM 2.5 concept was put forward in 1997, it came into Chinese people's sight in 2011, and became a household name in 2013 in China. Previous studies did not involve this indicator, so we need to re-examine and compare the effects of objective air quality data and subjective perception on Life satisfaction (LS). The data were collected from Xi'an, a megacity of Northwest China. Particles smaller than 2.5 μm in diameter (PM 2.5 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), and Air quality index (AQI) acquired from air quality stations were used to calculate pollutant concentrations near the vicinity of subjects’ home by Geographical information system (GIS) software. In this paper, the ordinal logistic regression models are used to explain ratings of LS in terms of the objective air pollution data, social and economic variables. The results indicate that the objective air pollution data has significant and negative effects on LS of the surveyed respondents. However, when the subjective perception of air pollution is considered in the regression models, it shows that the subjective perception of air pollution has a significant negative impact on LS, while the effects of PM 2.5 , NO 2 , SO 2 , and AQI on the LS become insignificant. Furthermore, the research significances and policy suggestions are discussed in this paper. Graphic abstract
ISSN:1387-585X
1573-2975
DOI:10.1007/s10668-021-01730-4