| Author: | Ng, Wai-yin |
| Title: | Revealing the disparities of subjective and objective air exposures level in Hong Kong |
| Degree: | M.Eng. |
| Year: | 2009 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations. Air -- Pollution -- China -- Hong Kong. Environmental policy -- China -- Hong Kong. |
| Department: | Department of Building Services Engineering |
| Pages: | viii, 129 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Air pollution epidemiology becomes important nowadays in worldwide. There were two main core themes in the previous studies: Health impact of air pollution and the relations of socio-factors with the air pollution. This raised the attention of the "environmental equity" around the world. The definition of "environmental equity" refers to the situation where certain socioeconomic groups are disproportionately suffering from the environmental hazards. Policy maker should maintain the equity while establish some environmental policy. In order to examine the equity issue in Hong Kong, the air exposures level was revealed in this study. This dissertation aims at revealing the disparities of both subjective (air annoyance) and objective exposure (PM10 exposure) levels. Instead of using the ambient pollutants concentrations, personal 24-h PM10 exposure were used as the indicator of air annoyance. The data of were collected through questionnaire survey and 350 questionnaire were successfully conducted from October 2008 to March 2009. Both SPSS version 15.0 and AMOS version 7.0 (for SEM) were used for analysis. Lower-socioeconomic group had higher PM10 exposure level who will more environmental burdened. For the subjective exposure, higher income group, high education group, male, subject with respiratory disease and lower level of neighborhood attachment were most annoyed by the air quality within their sub-population group. Moreover, the exposure-annoyance effect was also studied which found that the effect were insignificant at home but significant in enclosed transit and workplace. Then, determinants of the air annoyance were explored by the structural equation modeling (SEM). Overall perceived annoyance to air quality was affected by the coping behavior, level of neighborhood attachment, air annoyance and income level. Perceived annoyance was also indirectly affected by the PM10 exposure level. Policy maker should take a balance of considering subjective and objective exposure to establish a fair environmental policy. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b23034750.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 2.33 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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