“RISK PERCEPTION OF AIR QUALITY AND WILLINGNESS TO ACT IN LAHORE, PAKISTAN”

Abstract

Air quality is an increasingly prevalent issue in all major metropolitan cities of the world. Pakistan, with increasing levels of urbanization and economic activity is no exception where Lahore is now on the list of one of the most polluted cities in the world. In the recent years, the issue has gained more public and political attention because the city is covered in dangerous levels of smog in every winter season from December up till late January. The issue is not new and has been prevalent for a long time but lately its intensity has increased across the globe, drawing more attention to the problem. In Pakistan, the issue has not received sufficient attention at state level due to which the citizens are mainly left at their own to deal with the issue. This study aims to explore how the citizens of Lahore perceive the issue and whether their risk perception of the problem has an influence over the ways in which they choose to mitigate and adapt to the problem. The study was conducted in Upper Mall area off Lahore whereby household level data was collected through random sampling method through questionnaires. The chosen area had the worst AQI statistics as compared to the rest of Lahore, which is why this area was selected for this study. There are areas in Lahore, such as Mahmood Booti which is where you enter Lahore from the Motorway which appear to be heavily polluted, however their statistics were lower than Mall Scheme in the previous eight months which is why this area has been chosen. The data was empirically analysed through binary logistic regression to study the impact of risk perception and air quality awareness on mitigative and adaptive behaviors. The study found that gender and age had no effect on adaptive and mitigative choices, whereas education and income are important social predictors of how individuals respond to air quality risk. Risk perception (in particular health risk), understanding and knowledge of air quality and individual experience with poor air quality came out to be statistically significant and have an effect on an individual’s willingness to act on the mitigative and adaptive strategies.