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Testing theories to explore the drivers of cities' atmospheric emissions.
- Source :
-
Ambio [Ambio] 2009 Jun; Vol. 38 (4), pp. 236-44. - Publication Year :
- 2009
-
Abstract
- Despite a growing body of evidence demonstrating the importance of cities as sources of many local, regional, and global impacts on the atmosphere, ecosystems, and human populations, most theories on the relationship between society and the environment have focused on the global or national level. A variety of theories exist on human-environment interactions; for example, ecological modernization, urban transitions, and human ecology. However, with the exception of urban transitions, these theories have been mainly concerned with nation states and have ignored the subnational and local (city) levels. This article aims at filling this gap by employing ordinary least squares regression to examine these theories at the city level using the STIRPAT formula. It finds that with the exception of population (which shows an unstable relationship with the impacts indicators applied in the analysis) a remarkable level of variation exists in the importance of drivers across the three exercises. This led us to conclude that urban atmospheric pollutants result from diverse activities (e.g., transportation, industrial), are formed through different processes (vehicle combustion, biomass burning), have a residence time ranging from hours to years, and are the outcome of diverse sets of societal and environmental drivers.
- Subjects :
- Ecosystem
Humans
Industrial Waste adverse effects
Least-Squares Analysis
Models, Theoretical
Regression Analysis
Risk Assessment
Statistics as Topic
Sulfur Dioxide toxicity
Vehicle Emissions toxicity
Air Pollution statistics & numerical data
Cities
Social Environment
Urban Population statistics & numerical data
Urban Renewal statistics & numerical data
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0044-7447
- Volume :
- 38
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Ambio
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 19739558
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447-38.4.236