Air pollution perception in ten countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

Baowen Lou; Diego Maria Barbieri; Marco Passavanti; Cang Hui; Akshay Gupta; Inge Hoff; Daniela Antunes Lessa; Gaurav Sikka; Kevin Chang; Kevin Fang; Louisa Lam; Brij Maharaj; Navid Ghasemi; Yaning Qiao; Solomon Adomako; Ali Foroutan Mirhosseini; Bhaven Naik; Arunabha Banerjee; Fusong Wang; Andrew Tucker; Zhuangzhuang Liu; Kasun Wijayaratna; Sahra Naseri; Lei Yu; Hao Chen; Benan Shu; Shubham Goswami; Prince Peprah; Amir Hessami; Montasir Abbas; Nithin Agarwal

doi:10.1007/s13280-021-01574-2

Air pollution perception in ten countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

Baowen Lou^*, Diego Maria Barbieri^*, Marco Passavanti, Cang Hui, Akshay Gupta, Inge Hoff, Daniela Antunes Lessa, Gaurav Sikka, Kevin Chang, Kevin Fang, Louisa Lam, Brij Maharaj, Navid Ghasemi, Yaning Qiao, Solomon Adomako, Ali Foroutan Mirhosseini, Bhaven Naik, Arunabha Banerjee, Fusong Wang, Andrew TuckerZhuangzhuang Liu, Kasun Wijayaratna, Sahra Naseri, Lei Yu, Hao Chen, Benan Shu, Shubham Goswami, Prince Peprah, Amir Hessami, Montasir Abbas, Nithin Agarwal

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

As largely documented in the literature, the stark restrictions enforced worldwide in 2020 to curb the COVID-19 pandemic also curtailed the production of air pollutants to some extent. This study investigates the perception of the air pollution as assessed by individuals located in ten countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Ghana, India, Iran, Italy, Norway, South Africa and the USA. The perceptions towards air quality were evaluated by employing an online survey administered in May 2020. Participants (N = 9394) in the ten countries expressed their opinions according to a Likert-scale response. A reduction in pollutant concentration was clearly perceived, albeit to a different extent, by all populations. The survey participants located in India and Italy perceived the largest drop in the air pollution concentration; conversely, the smallest variation was perceived among Chinese and Norwegian respondents. Among all the demographic indicators considered, only gender proved to be statistically significant.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	531-545
Number of pages	15
Journal	Ambio
Volume	51
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01574-2
Publication status	Published - Mar 2022
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2021. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

Air quality
COVID-19 pandemic
Environmental pollution
Pollution perception
Psychometric perception

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10.1007/s13280-021-01574-2Licence: CC BY

Publisher version (open access)Final published version, 2.02 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

Lou, B., Barbieri, D. M., Passavanti, M., Hui, C., Gupta, A., Hoff, I., Lessa, D. A., Sikka, G., Chang, K., Fang, K., Lam, L., Maharaj, B., Ghasemi, N., Qiao, Y., Adomako, S., Foroutan Mirhosseini, A., Naik, B., Banerjee, A., Wang, F., ... Agarwal, N. (2022). Air pollution perception in ten countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ambio, 51(3), 531-545. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01574-2

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title = "Air pollution perception in ten countries during the COVID-19 pandemic",

abstract = "As largely documented in the literature, the stark restrictions enforced worldwide in 2020 to curb the COVID-19 pandemic also curtailed the production of air pollutants to some extent. This study investigates the perception of the air pollution as assessed by individuals located in ten countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Ghana, India, Iran, Italy, Norway, South Africa and the USA. The perceptions towards air quality were evaluated by employing an online survey administered in May 2020. Participants (N = 9394) in the ten countries expressed their opinions according to a Likert-scale response. A reduction in pollutant concentration was clearly perceived, albeit to a different extent, by all populations. The survey participants located in India and Italy perceived the largest drop in the air pollution concentration; conversely, the smallest variation was perceived among Chinese and Norwegian respondents. Among all the demographic indicators considered, only gender proved to be statistically significant.",

keywords = "Air quality, COVID-19 pandemic, Environmental pollution, Pollution perception, Psychometric perception",

author = "Baowen Lou and Barbieri, \{Diego Maria\} and Marco Passavanti and Cang Hui and Akshay Gupta and Inge Hoff and Lessa, \{Daniela Antunes\} and Gaurav Sikka and Kevin Chang and Kevin Fang and Louisa Lam and Brij Maharaj and Navid Ghasemi and Yaning Qiao and Solomon Adomako and \{Foroutan Mirhosseini\}, Ali and Bhaven Naik and Arunabha Banerjee and Fusong Wang and Andrew Tucker and Zhuangzhuang Liu and Kasun Wijayaratna and Sahra Naseri and Lei Yu and Hao Chen and Benan Shu and Shubham Goswami and Prince Peprah and Amir Hessami and Montasir Abbas and Nithin Agarwal",

note = "Copyright the Author(s) 2021. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.",

year = "2022",

month = mar,

doi = "10.1007/s13280-021-01574-2",

language = "English",

volume = "51",

pages = "531--545",

journal = "Ambio",

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Lou, B, Barbieri, DM, Passavanti, M, Hui, C, Gupta, A, Hoff, I, Lessa, DA, Sikka, G, Chang, K, Fang, K, Lam, L, Maharaj, B, Ghasemi, N, Qiao, Y, Adomako, S, Foroutan Mirhosseini, A, Naik, B, Banerjee, A, Wang, F, Tucker, A, Liu, Z, Wijayaratna, K, Naseri, S, Yu, L, Chen, H, Shu, B, Goswami, S, Peprah, P, Hessami, A, Abbas, M & Agarwal, N 2022, 'Air pollution perception in ten countries during the COVID-19 pandemic', Ambio, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 531-545. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01574-2

TY - JOUR

T1 - Air pollution perception in ten countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

AU - Lou, Baowen

AU - Barbieri, Diego Maria

AU - Passavanti, Marco

AU - Hui, Cang

AU - Gupta, Akshay

AU - Hoff, Inge

AU - Lessa, Daniela Antunes

AU - Sikka, Gaurav

AU - Chang, Kevin

AU - Fang, Kevin

AU - Lam, Louisa

AU - Maharaj, Brij

AU - Ghasemi, Navid

AU - Qiao, Yaning

AU - Adomako, Solomon

AU - Foroutan Mirhosseini, Ali

AU - Naik, Bhaven

AU - Banerjee, Arunabha

AU - Wang, Fusong

AU - Tucker, Andrew

AU - Liu, Zhuangzhuang

AU - Wijayaratna, Kasun

AU - Naseri, Sahra

AU - Yu, Lei

AU - Chen, Hao

AU - Shu, Benan

AU - Goswami, Shubham

AU - Peprah, Prince

AU - Hessami, Amir

AU - Abbas, Montasir

AU - Agarwal, Nithin

N1 - Copyright the Author(s) 2021. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

PY - 2022/3

Y1 - 2022/3

N2 - As largely documented in the literature, the stark restrictions enforced worldwide in 2020 to curb the COVID-19 pandemic also curtailed the production of air pollutants to some extent. This study investigates the perception of the air pollution as assessed by individuals located in ten countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Ghana, India, Iran, Italy, Norway, South Africa and the USA. The perceptions towards air quality were evaluated by employing an online survey administered in May 2020. Participants (N = 9394) in the ten countries expressed their opinions according to a Likert-scale response. A reduction in pollutant concentration was clearly perceived, albeit to a different extent, by all populations. The survey participants located in India and Italy perceived the largest drop in the air pollution concentration; conversely, the smallest variation was perceived among Chinese and Norwegian respondents. Among all the demographic indicators considered, only gender proved to be statistically significant.

AB - As largely documented in the literature, the stark restrictions enforced worldwide in 2020 to curb the COVID-19 pandemic also curtailed the production of air pollutants to some extent. This study investigates the perception of the air pollution as assessed by individuals located in ten countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Ghana, India, Iran, Italy, Norway, South Africa and the USA. The perceptions towards air quality were evaluated by employing an online survey administered in May 2020. Participants (N = 9394) in the ten countries expressed their opinions according to a Likert-scale response. A reduction in pollutant concentration was clearly perceived, albeit to a different extent, by all populations. The survey participants located in India and Italy perceived the largest drop in the air pollution concentration; conversely, the smallest variation was perceived among Chinese and Norwegian respondents. Among all the demographic indicators considered, only gender proved to be statistically significant.

KW - Air quality

KW - COVID-19 pandemic

KW - Environmental pollution

KW - Pollution perception

KW - Psychometric perception

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85123879319

U2 - 10.1007/s13280-021-01574-2

DO - 10.1007/s13280-021-01574-2

M3 - Article

C2 - 34155609

AN - SCOPUS:85123879319

SN - 0044-7447

VL - 51

SP - 531

EP - 545

JO - Ambio

JF - Ambio

IS - 3

ER -

Air pollution perception in ten countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

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