The socioeconomic factors influencing the PM₂.₅ levels of 160 cities in China

PM₂.₅ pollution has emerged in Chinese cities due to the acceleration of its social economy; changes in socioeconomic factors result in variations in urban PM₂.₅ levels. As the detection of the extensive socioeconomic factors influencing PM₂.₅ concentration in literature is insufficient, questions regarding whether there are neglected factors and the relationships among various socioeconomic factors and PM₂.₅ pollution remain unexplored. Benefiting from the data mining technique, this study employs association rule mining to identify the critical factors from 44 socioeconomic factors, and their underlying associative relationships with PM₂.₅ pollution are extracted. Considering the annual, seasonal, and weekly scenarios of 160 cities with varying PM₂.₅ levels, the hidden patterns reflecting the difference of factors’ diverse contributions to different types of cities are further revealed. The main results reveal the following: most northern cities face more PM₂.₅ concentration on weekends; PM₂.₅ pollution in the southern areas during the winter is more deteriorating; Beijing exhibits high PM₂.₅ levels but extremely low seasonal variance. Further, the urban land utilization structure, electricity consumption and its structure, industrial soot emissions, and traffic of passengers and freight are confirmed as critical factors. These findings present practical implications for PM₂.₅ pollution control and sustainable development of Chinese cities. Summary of the main finding: Critical socioeconomic factors influencing PM₂.₅ levels are identified from 44 potential factors under annual, seasonal, and weekly scenarios.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2022.104023
• Record URL:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210670722003432
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/22106707
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Li, Wenli
  • Yang, Guangfei
  • Qian, Xiangyu
  • 0000-0003-0428-1754
• Publication Date: 2022-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 104023
• Serial:
  • Sustainable Cities and Society
  • Volume: 84
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 2210-6707
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/22106707?sdc=2

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cities; Data mining; Particulates; Socioeconomic factors; Time intervals
• Geographic Terms: China
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Environment; Highways; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01859046
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 26 2022 9:12AM