Influencing Factors of Environmental Risk Perception during the COVID-19 Epidemic in China

Jingfei Zhang, Zhicheng Zheng, Lijun Zhang, Yaochen Qin, Jieran Duan and Anyi Zhang
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Jingfei Zhang: College of Geography and Environmental Science, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China
Zhicheng Zheng: College of Geography and Environmental Science, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China
Lijun Zhang: College of Geography and Environmental Science, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China
Yaochen Qin: College of Geography and Environmental Science, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China
Jieran Duan: College of Geography and Environmental Science, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China
Anyi Zhang: College of Geography and Environmental Science, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 17, 1-21

Abstract: The spread of COVID-19 is having a serious impact on socioeconomic development, and increased environmental risk perception (ERP). ERP provide new ideas for the orderly recovery of society. However, there have been studies that often pay attention to individual factors, and less concerned about the external environment. In fact, ERP will be affected by the external environment and individual factors. We used a Python script to collect 65,277 valid Weibo comments during the COVID-19 epidemic in China to assess urban residents’ environmental risk perception (ERP). SnowNLP emotion analysis was used to measure the ERP of 366 urban in China, and the structural proportion characteristics and spatial-temporal differentiation of ERP were analyzed. Then, an order logistic regression model was used to investigate the relationship between economic level, social security, medical facilities and ERP. The study investigated the Chinese cities have a higher ERP during the COVID-19 period, and it shows marked fluctuations. As COVID-19 spreads, the ERP shows a distribution pattern of “high in the southeast and low in the northwest” with Hu line as the boundary and “from high to low” with Wuhan as the high value center. COVID-19 serves as catalysts for ERP, the impact of COVID-19 is enhanced after socioeconomic factors are considered. The economic level effectively regulates ERP, except the stage of accelerating diffusion. ERP is effectively stabilized by social security and medical facilities. After considering all the variables simultaneously, we found that the mitigation effect of social security and medical facilities on ERP has improved.

Keywords: COVID-19; environmental risk perception; spatial-temporal big data; resilient city; order logistic regression; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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