Air quality in urban areas: Comparing objective and subjective indicators in European countries

Urban areas are major consumers of environmental resources and thus often place unsustainable demands on natural resources. As half of the world’s population (55%) lives in urban areas, the environmental degradation produced by cities threatens the health and quality of life of a fair share of the w...

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Autores principales:	Bruno Chiarini, Antonella D'Agostino, Elisabetta Marzano, Andrea Regoli
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Elsevier 2021
Materias:	Environmental quality Objective and subjective indicators Urban areas/cities European countries Cluster analysis Ecology QH540-549.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/53e6213025104bceb04798e06793a145
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:53e6213025104bceb04798e06793a1452021-12-01T04:36:42ZAir quality in urban areas: Comparing objective and subjective indicators in European countries1470-160X10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107144https://doaj.org/article/53e6213025104bceb04798e06793a1452021-02-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X20310839https://doaj.org/toc/1470-160XUrban areas are major consumers of environmental resources and thus often place unsustainable demands on natural resources. As half of the world’s population (55%) lives in urban areas, the environmental degradation produced by cities threatens the health and quality of life of a fair share of the world’s population. For these reasons, progress towards sustainable urban development must be monitored and measured through suitable indicators. With reference to the assessment of air quality as a specific dimension of environmental quality in urban areas, existing studies have introduced various methodologies that mostly focus on objective measures (typically, exposure to outdoor air pollutants) while neglecting measures based on individual perceptions. Our goal is to contribute to filling this gap. To this end, we explore the relationship between objective and subjective measures of urban air quality in European countries. While the objective indicator is based on concentrations of PM2.5, our subjective indicator is reconstructed from individual perceptions collected through the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) sample survey. Finally, through a cluster analysis, we classify the countries into homogeneous groups based on the values of these indicators. Our analysis reveals several differences in the country rankings according to the two indicators. For one group of countries, both approaches converge, thus leading to more definitive conclusions. For other countries, the mismatch between the two indicators suggests that either approach alone is not able to capture the full picture on air quality in urban environments.Bruno ChiariniAntonella D'AgostinoElisabetta MarzanoAndrea RegoliElsevierarticleEnvironmental qualityObjective and subjective indicatorsUrban areas/citiesEuropean countriesCluster analysisEcologyQH540-549.5ENEcological Indicators, Vol 121, Iss , Pp 107144- (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Environmental quality Objective and subjective indicators Urban areas/cities European countries Cluster analysis Ecology QH540-549.5
spellingShingle	Environmental quality Objective and subjective indicators Urban areas/cities European countries Cluster analysis Ecology QH540-549.5 Bruno Chiarini Antonella D'Agostino Elisabetta Marzano Andrea Regoli Air quality in urban areas: Comparing objective and subjective indicators in European countries
description	Urban areas are major consumers of environmental resources and thus often place unsustainable demands on natural resources. As half of the world’s population (55%) lives in urban areas, the environmental degradation produced by cities threatens the health and quality of life of a fair share of the world’s population. For these reasons, progress towards sustainable urban development must be monitored and measured through suitable indicators. With reference to the assessment of air quality as a specific dimension of environmental quality in urban areas, existing studies have introduced various methodologies that mostly focus on objective measures (typically, exposure to outdoor air pollutants) while neglecting measures based on individual perceptions. Our goal is to contribute to filling this gap. To this end, we explore the relationship between objective and subjective measures of urban air quality in European countries. While the objective indicator is based on concentrations of PM2.5, our subjective indicator is reconstructed from individual perceptions collected through the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) sample survey. Finally, through a cluster analysis, we classify the countries into homogeneous groups based on the values of these indicators. Our analysis reveals several differences in the country rankings according to the two indicators. For one group of countries, both approaches converge, thus leading to more definitive conclusions. For other countries, the mismatch between the two indicators suggests that either approach alone is not able to capture the full picture on air quality in urban environments.
format	article
author	Bruno Chiarini Antonella D'Agostino Elisabetta Marzano Andrea Regoli
author_facet	Bruno Chiarini Antonella D'Agostino Elisabetta Marzano Andrea Regoli
author_sort	Bruno Chiarini
title	Air quality in urban areas: Comparing objective and subjective indicators in European countries
title_short	Air quality in urban areas: Comparing objective and subjective indicators in European countries
title_full	Air quality in urban areas: Comparing objective and subjective indicators in European countries
title_fullStr	Air quality in urban areas: Comparing objective and subjective indicators in European countries
title_full_unstemmed	Air quality in urban areas: Comparing objective and subjective indicators in European countries
title_sort	air quality in urban areas: comparing objective and subjective indicators in european countries
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/53e6213025104bceb04798e06793a145
work_keys_str_mv	AT brunochiarini airqualityinurbanareascomparingobjectiveandsubjectiveindicatorsineuropeancountries AT antonelladagostino airqualityinurbanareascomparingobjectiveandsubjectiveindicatorsineuropeancountries AT elisabettamarzano airqualityinurbanareascomparingobjectiveandsubjectiveindicatorsineuropeancountries AT andrearegoli airqualityinurbanareascomparingobjectiveandsubjectiveindicatorsineuropeancountries
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Air quality in urban areas: Comparing objective and subjective indicators in European countries

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