Abstract
This study investigated how the public awareness of air quality affects people's decisions to participate in outdoor activities. Given that the keyword search volume of particulate matter (PM) in Seoul, South Korea started to grow dramatically only after November 2013, we defined two periods (low and high public awareness of PM) and conducted a series of comparative analyses to investigate the impact of public awareness of air quality on the relationship between PM level and people's outdoor activities. In the low public awareness period, people's outdoor activities measured by the number of daily subway passengers did not significantly vary over PM levels, even in the 'unhealthy' range (80 < PM10 < = 150 μg/m3). On the contrary, during the high awareness period, people's activities were significantly affected by the PM level, even in the 'moderate' range. Specifically, the perceived safety threshold of PM10 level that people use to decide for engaging outdoor activities has decreased from 120 to 70 μg/m3. These results suggest that public awareness of air quality and its harmful ramifications on health is a key determinant of outdoor activities rather than PM10 concentration itself. Thus, this study alludes to a need for more timely and effective dissemination of air quality information to the public as much as for curbing anthropogenic emissions.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 820 |
Journal | Sustainability (Switzerland) |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 1 2020 |
Keywords
- Air pollution
- Outdoor activity
- Particulate matter
- Public awareness
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Computer Science (miscellaneous)
- Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
- Geography, Planning and Development
- Energy Engineering and Power Technology
- Hardware and Architecture
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
- Computer Networks and Communications
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment