China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, China; School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Key Laboratory on Urban Ecological Environment Simulation and Protection, South China Institute of Environmental Science, MEE, Guangzhou, China.
J Environ Manage. 2022 Oct 15;320:115941. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115941. Epub 2022 Aug 12.
Understanding the mechanism of public perception and behavior towards environmental goods provision is essential for effective sustainable governance. This paper studies how citizens' self-reported environmental knowledge affects their trust in public service providers and subsequently their decisions about accepting the provision of a pollution management facility in their neighborhood. Utilizing unique survey data on the siting of a facility for waste incineration in Guangzhou, China, we find that the public's perceived environmental knowledge damages their trust in the operator, which lowers their acceptance of the facility siting, while damage to their trust in the government is negligible. In addition, we find that citizens' preferences for the type of information disclosed and the channels used for disclosure can affect public trust and thus acceptance of the facility siting. Therefore, policy suggestions for urban planning for sustainability are that the urban planner and policy maker can mitigate the negative consequences of bounded environmental knowledge by ensuring there is appropriate information disclosure. This study broadens our understanding of public recognition and acceptance of environmental goods provision and provides practical suggestions for sustainable development.
理解公众对环境商品供应的认知和行为机制对于有效的可持续治理至关重要。本文研究了公民自我报告的环境知识如何影响他们对公共服务提供者的信任，进而影响他们对接受在其社区提供污染管理设施的决策。利用中国广州一项关于废物焚烧设施选址的独特调查数据，我们发现，公众对环境知识的感知损害了他们对运营商的信任，从而降低了他们对设施选址的接受程度，而对政府的信任损害则可以忽略不计。此外，我们发现，公民对所披露信息类型和披露渠道的偏好会影响公众对设施选址的信任，从而影响他们的接受程度。因此，城市可持续规划的政策建议是，城市规划师和政策制定者可以通过确保适当的信息披露来减轻有限环境知识的负面影响。本研究拓宽了我们对环境商品供应的公众认知和接受程度的理解，并为可持续发展提供了实际建议。
