Do Individuals’ Activity Structures Influence Their PM 2. 5 Exposure Levels? Evidence from Human Trajectory Data in Wuhan City

Siyu Ma, Lin Yang, Mei-Po Kwan, Zejun Zuo, Haoyue Qian and Minghao Li
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Siyu Ma: School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, 388 Lumo Road, Wuhan 430074, China
Lin Yang: School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, 388 Lumo Road, Wuhan 430074, China
Mei-Po Kwan: Department of Geography and Resource Management, Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China
Zejun Zuo: School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, 388 Lumo Road, Wuhan 430074, China
Haoyue Qian: School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, 388 Lumo Road, Wuhan 430074, China
Minghao Li: School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, 388 Lumo Road, Wuhan 430074, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 9, 1-27

Abstract: Severe air pollution has become a major risk to human health from a global environmental perspective. It has been recognized that human mobility is an essential component in individual exposure assessment. Activity structure reflects the characteristics of human mobility. Thus, a better understanding of the relationship between human activity structure and individual exposure level is of crucial relevance. This study examines this relationship using a large cell-phone GPS dataset in Wuhan, China. The results indicate that there is a strong linear relationship between people’s activity structures and exposures to PM 2 . 5 . Inter-group comparisons based on the four activity structure groups obtained with K-means clustering found that groups with different activity structures do experience different levels of PM 2 . 5 exposure. Furthermore, differences in detailed characteristics of activity structure were also found at different exposure levels at the intra-group level. These results show that people’s activity structures do influence their exposure levels. The paper provides a new perspective for understanding individual exposure through human activity structure, which helps move the perspective of research on individual exposure from the semantic of physical location to the semantic of human activity pattern.

Keywords: PM 2 . 5 exposure; human mobility; cell phone GPS dataset; activity patterns; PM 2 . 5 (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 (2)

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