Environmental Management (2012) 50:505513

DOI 10.1007/s00267-012-9920-8

PROFILE

The Environmental Pollution Perception of Residents in Coal Mining

Areas: A Case Study in the Hancheng Mine Area, Shaanxi Province,
China

Xingmin Shi Fei He

Received: 7 December 2011 / Accepted: 5 July 2012 / Published online: 3 August 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
2012

environment. The perception order of pollution

Abstract The environmental behavior of the residents
depends on their perception of environmental
pollution. Hence, it is important for scientific and
policy experts to research on the impact of the
environmental pollution perception of local residents.
Owing to the richness of natural resources, Hancheng
coal mine areas are abound in heavy industries, and
environmental pollution is serious and typical in this
area, thus, the residents are anxious about their health.
Using questionnaires, this paper surveys the
perception of residents living in the coal mine area.
The influential factors of environmental perception
were ana-lyzed by the Rank Sum Test. The results
were: (1) the majority of the residents in the coal
mine area are not satisfied with their living
severity is: air pollution [ noise pollu-tion [ sanitation
[ water pollution. The residents think that pollution is
mainly caused by coal processing. Hence, coal
mining is not the main reason of the pollution in the
coal mine area. (2) Age and length of residence have
sig-nificant positive effects on perceptions of air,
water, and noise pollutions; whereas education has a
significant neg-ative effect on perceptions of water
and noise pollutions, as well as sanitation. This
phenomenon can be explained by the various cultural
groups having varied perceptions on the
environmental pollution. In addition, proximity to
mine has significant negative effect on perceptions of
water and noise pollution. In conclusion, the paper
discusses the
X. Shi (&)
College of Tourism and Environment Science, Shaanxi Normal
University, Changan Road, Yanta District, Xian, China e-
mail: realsimon@163.com
F. He
College of Resource Environment and Tourism,
Xianyang Normal College, Xianyang, China
effects of demographical and social factors on the
per-ception of environmental pollution and gives
suggestions on the planning and management of the
environment.
Keywords Coal mine _ Environmental pollution _
Perception _ Demographical and social factors _
China _ Shaanxi province
123
506
Environmental Management (2012) 50:505513
Environmentalpollution
PerceptionofEnvironmentalpollution
Introduction
As the primary source of energy in China, coal
accounts for about 50 % of the non-recyclable energy
consumption of the country in the middle of this
century and will play a dominant role in the field of
energy for a long time (Wu 2010). However,
environmental problems caused by coal mining
become increasingly serious, threatening the eco-
logical safety in the mining areas (Shi and others
2010). For this reason, environmental pollution poses
an important social problem (Bickerstaff and Walker
2001). The usual environmental concerns in the
mining areas mainly focus on the technical aspects,
such as clean coal technology, comprehensive
utilization of coal gangues, land reclama-tion, and the
like (Dong and Liu 2005). Very few studies concern
about the perception of residents in the mining areas
on environmental pollution.X
The perception on environmental pollution is the psy-
chological basis for the environmental behaviors of
the people, and accurate perceptions can lead to
sound behaviors (Xu and others 2006). Residents
who are aware of environmental pollution are able to
take action accord-ing to previous knowledge and
value systems. They will take specific actions to
minimize environmental pollution, if such actions can
reduce losses, otherwise, they may migrate to avoid
it. All of these actions will eventuallyX
Knowledge

Actionisneeded
No

Noaction

Changing
Experience

Yes

Reducinglosses
No

Moving

Yes
Action

Fig. 1 The process of environmental pollution perception

especially reports on environmental pollution

perception.X

generate feedback and affect the perception of the

residents on the environment (Fig. 1).X

The reliability of the results of previous studies is

Many studies on perceptions of environmental
pollution have been performed. For example, White (
1974) explored the social and technical measures to
control environmental problems; whereas Preston and
others ( 1983) studied the environmental perceptions
in Canada.X
Most studies revealed that socio-economic factors influ-
ence the perception of a person. Engel and Potschke (
1998) examined the differences in the environmental
behaviors of populations with different attributes, and
found that age and education have significant effects on
their willingness to pay for environmental costs. Blocker
and Eckberg ( 1997) found that gender, social status, and
other attributes have important effects on the attitudes of
the people towards the environment. In addition, Flynn
and others ( 2006) examined the effect of race, gender,
and other factors on environmental perception.X
In China these perception studies mainly focused on
disasters (Lai and Tao 2003), climate change and
tourism (Chang and others 2011; Deng and others
2011), but few on environmental perceptions studies.
There are some studies about citizens environmental
behavior and awareness (Wu 1987; Peng and Zhou
2001; Wang and Hou 2010). Zhou and Yu ( 2009),
provided a research frame-work of perception on
disasters. The perception and adaptive behaviors of
farmers in Heilongjiang Province were studied in
relation to global warming (Tian and others 2005; Yun
and others 2009). In addition, some studies were
conducted on pollution perception related to tourism,
semi-arid areas (Quinn and others 2003), and protected
areas (Wang and others 2009; Liu and others 2010). In
general, studies on this subject are still relatively few,
affected since variable characteristics were not
2
considered. The v test that was widely used in
previous studies is primarily suitable to nominal level
variables; the F-test is mainly suitable to testing of
average values; and the rank sum test (a
nonparametric test) needs to be adopted for ranked
data on environmental pollution perception
(Wadsworth 1998; Maneerat and others 2011). In
addition, correlation analy-sis should be performed
based on the significance test. On the basis of the
rank sum test, this paper categorizes variables which
have significant effects on environmental pollution
perception into ordinal variables and nominal
variables, and explores the relationship between these
variables and environmental perception.X
The aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of
demographical and social factors of residents in
mining areas on environmental pollution perception,
so as to pro-vide a basis for environmental
improvement, planning and policy making.
Study Area and Methods
Study Area
The study area is located in the Longmen District,
0 00 0 00
Hancheng City (109L13 600 110L58 524 E,
0
34L34 056
00

0 00
35L61 188 N), approximately 180 km north from the
city center of Xian, China. Coal, iron ore, limestone,
123
Environmental Management (2012) 50:505513
507
gangue, 0.3 million t; concentrator waste, 2.46
million t; sulfur dioxide, 0.048 million t; dust, 0.012
million t; and sewage 0.78 million t. About 3.55
million t of gangue has been accumulated over the
3
years, and 400 million m of gas emissions are
unutilized. Other nitrogen oxides, sulfides and surface
water have different degrees of pollution. These
pollutants pose serious risks to health, and hindered
the economic development in this area.
Questionnaire and Survey
The perceptions of environmental pollution can be
divided into four categories: (1) degree of pollution,
(2) environ-mental satisfaction, (3) health concerns,
and (4) pollution causes. The perceptions on the
degree of pollution include perceptions on air
pollution, water pollution, noise pollu-tion, and
environmental sanitation. In addition, the ques-
tionnaire also gathered the attributes of residents,
such as gender, age, educational level, occupation,
length of resi-dence, and proximity to mine. Such
data could tell whether the sample was representative
of the general population and the relationships
between socioeconomic status and perception of the
residents (Jim and Chen 2006). The Five-point Likert
scale was used to measure the intensity of
environmental pollution (Leiserowitz 2006). For
example, the satisfaction survey was evaluated
through the Likert scale using the range from (1) very
dissatisfied to (5) very satisfied.X
and other kinds of mineral resources are found in
Hancheng, and the coal reserves comprise 2.7 billion t.
Environmental pollu-tion has been serious in this area.
Emissions of major pol-lutants from solid waste
comprise 3.6 million t, including:
Questionnaires were distributed in September 2008.
Participants were randomly selected based on their
com-munities (villages) which kept basic information
of resi-dents. Despite of the difficulty, the household
survey was chosen (Whitmarsh 2009), because it
allows samples to more accurately represent the
perception of the general population than cyber
survey. According to the data of Population and
Family Planning Bureau in Longmen Town (study
area), there is a total of 25,191 people in the study
area. 600 questionnaires were distributed and 507
were returned. In the end, 454 were effective, and the
effective ratio was about 75.6 %. The total Alpha reli-
ability coefficient of the questionnaires was above
0.8, indicating that the questionnaires have good
credibility in general. Basic information about the
samples is presented in Table 1.X
Data Analysis
(1) A mathematical model can be used to analyze the
differences in the perceptions of residents. For this
purpose,
the mathematical model was:
P
A
Vi _ Nij
1 [60
7.0

Education
Primary school
7.5

P
Nij

Junior high school

32.8

High school
Table 1 The demographical and social characteristics of sample 39.9

Characteristics

Secondary technical school

9.9
(%)

University
9.9

Length of residence
05a
10.7
Age group
\30
36.3

610a
11.0

3040
27.5

1120a
22.5

4150
18.7

2130
14.8

5160
10.4

[30a
14.8
Aborigines Other
26.2 17.4

Gender Proximity (distance from

Male 1 \ 1 km
56.8 44.5

mine area)
12 km
Female 22.7
43.2

Occupation
Industry and mining
22.0

Education or technical staff

9.5

23 km
15.6

Freelance
25.1

34 km
2.4

Retirement
8.8

45 km
6.4

Business
7.3

[5 km
8.4

Agriculture, forestry, animal

9.9

husbandry

where A is the perception intensity of certain
residents; Vi is the score of certain residents holding
viewpoint i; and Nij is the number of certain residents
holding the i views on the investigated factor j.
(2) Different genders, ages, and occupations residents
may have similar or different perception of
environmental pollution. Hence, the differences in the
123
perceptions must be determined using statistical tests,
and the appropriate test-ing methods must be
carefully chosen.
Firstly all value of Skewness and Kurtosis are not
equal zero (Table 2). Secondly we used single-
sample Kol-mogorovSmirnov test (KS normality
test) methods to test whether the sample data follow a
normal distribution, but the P was less than 0.05, so
the data are not normally distributed. We had to use
non-parametric tests. TheX
508 Environmental Management (2012) 50:505513

The KruskalWallis rank sum test is used for multiple

groups of ranked data, based on the principle that, for k
2 samples subject to the same distribution, the statistical
commonly used non-parametric tests are v test, rank sum
2
test, etc. value H is subject to the v distribution of the degree of
freedom k-1 when the sample size is not too small.

2
The v test is applicable to the enumeration data of
nominal variables (Wang 2000) but not to the ranked data.
On the other hand, the rank sum test has a wide scope of
application and can be applied to distribution data of any
type (Huang and Liang 1999).X

k
2
The MannWhitney rank sum test is often used for ranked
data consisting of two groups of independent samples
(Faulkner and others 2001). The statistical value for
testing W is equal to Wx when m is less than n, and equal
to Wy when m is more than n. If m is equal to n, the
statistical value is equal to W of the sample group with the
first variable value. Thus, the MannWhitney statistical H
value is computed as:X
X
12 Rj

_ 3N 1
U 3

W
_
kk 1
2

NN 1 n
i1 j

where k is the number of sample data in the sample group

corresponding to W.
Where k is the number of samples, nj is the number of
cases of the j samples, N is the sum of cases of all samples,
and Rj is the rank sum of the jth sample.
The Kendall rank correlation test is used for analysis of
two ordinal variables based on the Kendall rank correlation
coefficient s having the formula:
4u
_ 1;
4
s intensity were: light, 12.4, general, 2.53.4, and
nn _ 1
where u is the consistency logarithm of y, and s ranges
from -1 to 1. When s is equal to 1, the two groups of ranks
have a complete positive correlation; whereas when s is
equal to -1, the two groups of ranks have complete neg-
ative correlation.
Table 2 Intensity of environmental pollution perception
(3) The demographical variables exerting significant effect
on environmental pollution perception were deter-mined
based on statistical tests, and their correlations with
perception were analyzed. The plus or minus sign in front
of the correlation coefficient indicates the direction of the
relationships among these variables (i.e., either positive or
negative). The value of the correlation coef-ficient
indicates the strength of the relationship; hence, the effect
Air pollution
Water pollution
Sanitation
Noise
Environmental satisfaction
Health concern
of demographical and social factors of the residents on
environmental pollution perception can be determined.
Results
Intensity of Environmental Pollution Perception
The scales (from 1 to 5) used to measure perception
very serious, 3.55. The results (Table 2) showed that
the residents consider air pollution as the most serious,
followed by noise pollution, environmental sanitation, and
water pollution. All were recorded very serious, indi-
cating that the locals consider environmental pollution as
already very serious and health threatening. The perception
intensity on environmental satisfaction was very low,
indicating that the residents were dissatisfied with their
environment.X
Causes of Environmental Pollution in the Mining Areas
Perception of the main causes of environmental pollution in
mining areas (Fig. 2) showed that coal processing (washing
and coking) is the major cause of pollution, fol-lowed by poor
law enforcement, steel production, and power generation.
Only 12 % of the residents think that coal mining is the major
cause of pollution, whereas 10 % consider backward
management in the mining areas as the major reason, and still
11 % consider low environmental protection awareness as the
major reason. Hence, most of residents think that the
environmental pollution in study areas is mainly caused by
coal-related industries and is worsened by poor law
enforcement, backward managementX
Perception intensity
4.34
3.49
3.88
3.91
1.89
4.45
Max
5
5
5
5
5
5
Min
1
1
1
1
1
1
Skewness
-0.89
0.41
0.07
-0.19
0.98
-1.14
Kurtosis
-0.07
-0.85
-1.23
-1.25
0.78
0.92
123
Environmental Management (2012) 50:505513
509

Fig. 2 Causes of environmental pollution in coal mine

in the mining areas, and low environmental awareness of

the residents.

Demographical and Social Factors of Residents

and Perception Differences

Effect of Gender on Perception

The MannWhitney U test results show that gender has no

significant effect on the environmental pollution percep-
tion. Taking air pollution as an example, the statistical
value was -0.74, and P was more than 0.05 (Table 3),
indicating that gender has no significant effect on the
perception of air pollution. Similarly, test results of water
pollution, noise pollution, environmental sanitation, health
concerns, and environmental satisfaction showed P [ 0.05
(Table 3). Hence, gender has no significant impact on
environmental pollution.X
Effect of Age on Perception The Kendall rank correlation test was used to determine
whether the length of residence can affect the environ-
mental pollution perception of residents.

To determine the differences in the environmental pollu-

tion perceptions of different age residents, the Kendall rank
correlation test was used with the age as a grouping Hence, the length of residence has a significant effect on
variable. the perception of air pollution, water pollution, noise pol-
lution, and health concerns (P \ 0.05) (Table 4).X

Results of the statistical test show that age has significant

effect on the perception of environmental satisfaction, air Effect of Proximity to Mine on Perception
pollution, water pollution, and noise pollution (Table 4).X

The Kendall rank correlation test was adopted to determine

Effect of the Education Level on Perception whether the perceptions of environmental pollution differ
with the proximity to mine.

The Kendall rank correlation test was adopted to examine

whether the perception of environmental pollution differ
across varying education levels.
Hence, education has a significant effect on the per-ception
of noise pollution, water pollution, and environ-mental
sanitation (P \ 0.05) (Table 4).X
Test results (Table 4) showed that the proximity to mine of
the residents has a significant effect on the perception of
water pollution, noise pollution, health concerns, and
environmental satisfaction.X
Effect of Occupation on Perception

Effect of Length of Residence on Perception The KruskalWallis rank sum test, generally used to
compare multiple groups of rank data, was adopted to

Table 3 Difference test of environmental pollution perception between genders

Air
Water
Sanitation
Noise
Health
Environmental

pollution
pollution
concern
satisfaction

MannWhitney U
24357.000
24369.000
23635.500
25054.000
25088.000
24805.000
Z
-0.737
-0.716
-1.257
-0.175
-0.160
-0.369
P
0.461
0.474
0.209
0.861
0.873
0.712
123
510

Environmental Management (2012) 50:505513

Table 4 Kendall rank correlation test of ages, education, length of residence and proximity effect

Kendalls tau_b
Air
Water
Sanitation
Noise
Health
Environmental

pollution
pollution
concern
Satisfaction

Age
Correlation
-0.162**
-0.169**
-0.029
-0.172**
-0.075
-0.104**

coefficient

P
0.000
0.000
0.462
0.000
0.071
0.010
Education
Correlation
0.072
0.099*
0.086*
0.162**
-0.015
-0.004
coefficient

P
0.081
0.014
0.033
0.000
0.714
0.936
Length of
Correlation
-0.102*
-0.089*
-0.027
-0.130**
-0.084*
-0.029
residence
coefficient

P
0.010
0.022
0.491
0.001
0.037
0.457
Proximity
Correlation
0.071
-0.106**
0.074
0.184**
0.130*
0.213**

coefficient

P
0.085
0.008
0.066
0.000
0.002
0.000

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed); ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)

Table 5
The KruskalWallis rank sum test of occupation effect

Air pollution
Water pollution
Sanitation
Noise
Environmental satisfaction
Health concern

2
v
24.458
9.765
16.593
24.834
12.739
25.968
P
0.006*
0.461
0.084
0.006*
0.239
0.004*

* P \ 0.01

Table 6 Demographical and social factors effect on environmental pollution perception

Air pollution
Water pollution
Sanitation
Noise
Health concern
Environmental satisfaction
Gender
-
-
-
-
-
-
Age
?
?
-
?
-
?
Education
-
?
?
?
-
-
Length of residence
?
?
-
?
?
-
Occupation
?
-
-
?
?
-
Proximity
-
?
-
?
?
?

-: no significant impact, ?: significant impact

The effect of the demographical and social factors on their

perception of environmental pollution is summarized in
determine whether there are occupation differences in the Table 6, based on the above statistical results.X
environmental pollution perceptions.

Hence, occupation has a significant effect on the per-

ception of health concerns, noise pollution, and air pollu- Discussion
tion (P \ 0.05) (Table 5).X
The demographical and social variables can be divi-ded
into two categories: variables (1) with and (2) without
significant effect on the perception of envi-ronmental Relationship between Ordinal Variables and Perceptions
pollution. The former can be further

The ordinal variables (age, education, length of residence,

categorized into ordinal variables and nominal vari-ables
(Fig. 3). The correlation analysis cannot be performed on
nominal variables, and only the Pearson correlation
analysis can be performed on the ordinal variables with
significant impact on environmental pollution perception.X
and proximity to mine) have significant effects on per-
ceptions of environmental pollution (Table 7).X
Age has a positive relation with the perception of air
pollution, water pollution, and noise pollution but has a
negative relation with environmental satisfaction. Older

123
Environmental Management (2012) 50:505513
511

Demographicalandsocialvariables Age

Fig. 3 Classification of
demographical and social
factors variables Ordinal

Variableswithnosignificantimpactontheenvironmental variable Education

pollutionperception

Variableswithsignificant lengthofresidence
impactontheenvironmental Nominal
pollutionperception

variable Occupation

Proximity

Gender

Table 7 Correlation between ordinal variables and environmental pollution perception

Air pollution
Water pollution
Sanitation
Noise

Health concern
Environmental satisfaction

Age
0.285
(0.000)
0.339
(0.000)
-
0.305
(0.000)
-

-0.215
(0.014)
Education
-

-0.207
(0.022)
-0.168 (0.045)
-0.264 (0.000)
-

Length of residence
0.220
(0.010)
0.204
(0.027)
-
0.254
(0.001)
0.190
(0.056)
-

Proximity
-

-0.223
(0.009)
-
-0.318
(0.000)
-0.221
(0.010)
-0.439
(0.000)

-: no significant impact; the significance level in brackets

by noise pollution and dust pollution. Thus, these residents

residents are considered to take pollution more seriously
and to have a low level of environmental satisfaction. The
physical health of the people declines along with aging;
thus, the environmental pollution perception threshold is
also lessened (Golledge and Stimsom 1987), and older
residents are more sensitive to environmental pollution and
think that pollution is more serious.X
can better perceive environmental pollution, compared
with those who have high education levels are more tol-
erant of the environmental pollution.X
The length of residence has a positive correlation with the
perception of air pollution, water pollution, noise pol-
lution, and health concerns. The longer they live, the better

Education has a negative relation with the perception of

water pollution, environmental sanitation, and noise pol- environment the residents demand; thus, these residents
lution. Generally, residents of high educational levels are consider pollution as more serious and they are more
more sensitive to the environment (Kideghesho and others concerned with their health.
2007). However, residents in the Hancheng mining area
with high education levels have less perception of water
pollution, environmental sanitation, and noise pollution,
Proximity to mine has a negative relation with the per-
which can be explained by cultural group character (Peng
ception of water pollution, noise pollution, and health
and Zhou 2001). Groups sharing similar education levels
concerns, as well as environmental satisfaction. Residents
play the same political and economic roles, and thus have
living far from mining areas think that the degree of
similar perception intensities. Residents with high educa-
environmental pollution is low and are more satisfied with
tion levels enjoy economic benefits from the exploration of
the environment. This is also known as the spatial levels of
mineral resources, whereas those with low education levels
environmental pollution perception, indicating that there
cannot enjoy the same economic benefits and even suffer
exists different levels of spatial distance while peoples
from losses caused by mineral exploration. For example,
different sensory perception collecting environmental
the income and the dwelling environment of a number of
information, under the same conditions, the environmental
villagers with low education levels are seriously affected
pollution will decrease correspondingly while the farther
off the perceived physical environment and the less
sensory perceptions being used.
Relationship between Nominal Variable and Perceptions
Occupation has a significant impact on the perception of
air pollution, noise pollution, and health concerns. Because
123
occupation is nominal variable, the correlation analysis
cannot show the relationship between occupation and
perceptions, and only the qualitative analysis can be per-
formed. The intensity of perception of air pollution, noise
pollution, and health concerns are related with seven types
of occupations, as shown in Fig. 4.X
Residents engaged in agriculture, forestry, animal hus-
bandry, industry, and mining have the highest intensity of
air pollution perception. The survey found that 91.6 % of
512 Environmental Management (2012) 50:505513

Fig. 4 Difference of
environmental perception
between occupation groups

Freelance

EducationorTechnicalstaff

Retirement
 Business
Airpollution
Noise
Healthconcern
Industryandmining
the residents engaged in agriculture, forestry, and animal
husbandry believe that air pollution affects these activities.
About 44.02 % of them think that their yield in agriculture,
forestry, and animal husbandry was reduced; about 40.79
% of them think that the quality of their product
deteriorated; 12.52 % of them think that the production
cost was increased; and about 2.60 % of them think that
there are still other effects on agriculture, forestry, and
animal husbandry. Residents engaged in industry and
mining who mainly work in coal mining plants, power
plants, and coking and steel-making enterprises suffer
more from the stimulation of air pollution.
Residents still engaged in agriculture, forestry, and animal
husbandry, as well as those who have already retired from
these activities, have the highest intensity of noise
pollution perception. The survey found that noise pollution
is mainly caused by coal mining, coal processing,
transportation, steel-making, and so on. As coal gobs and
coal processing enterprises are built up around the villages,
the residents in the villages can strongly perceive noise
pollution. Meanwhile, these residents yearn for their old
Agriculture,forestry,animalhusbandry
Other
village life and those retired enjoy more leisure time; thus,
the threshold of their perception of noise pollution is rel-
atively low, making them more sensitive to noise.
Residents engaged in industry, mining, agriculture, forestry,
and animal husbandry have stronger perception of health
concerns than others. The stronger the perceptions of
pollution, the higher degree of health concerns become.
Taking the work environment into consideration, residents
engaged in industry and mining are subjected to more
environmental pollutants than those engaged in other types of
job. Some workers even suffer from occupational dis-eases in
the survey, which is a major reason why they cared more
about their health. In the survey about the impact of
environmental pollution on health, 71.1 % of the residents
engaged in agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry and
71.0 % of the residents in industry and mining have once
suffered from pneumonia, rhinitis, and impaired immunity.
These percentages are higher than that of the groups in
other occupations. This is the most important reason why
residents engaged in the above mentioned activities have
strong perception of health concerns.

Conclusions
Environmental pollution in mining areas is an external
stimulus to residents, and different demographical factors
may lead to different environmental pollution perceptions.
This study may offer some valuable information that can
be incorporated into decision-making and lead to
resolution of the conflicts in coal mine area. The main
conclusions are as follows:
Residents in the mining areas think that air pollution is the
most serious environmental pollution; followed by noise
pollution, environmental sanitation, and water pollution.
123
Environmental Management (2012) 50:505513
513
of environmental satisfaction. In order to mitigate potential
conflicts between the coal mine enterprises and local
young people, it also suggests that improving education
level for local people should be effective, particularly
when coupled with providing employment opportunities.
To improve the environment in the mining areas, environ-
mental pollution must be monitored, and the perception of the
local residents on environmental pollution must be understood
and considered too. This study not only can help government
departments to work more efficiently and local residents to
respond effectively to the environmental policies of the gov-
ernment but also can provide a reference for environmental
management and policy making in the mining areas.
Acknowledgments This research was supported by the National
Social Science Foundation of China (No. 07XSH017) and the Fun-
damental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No.
According to the public perception, environmental
pollution in mining areas mainly result from coal
processing (washing, screening, and coking) and poor law
enforcement (i.e., environmental pollution in mining areas
is not mainly caused by coal mining).
The results of the study revealed that age, education, length
of residence, proximity to mine and occupation have close
associations with local peoples environ-mental pollution
perception. Management authorities have to take into
account the heterogeneous charac-teristics of local people
when establishing and implementing conservation policies.
A relocation policy should be implemented especially for
older people, because older residents have a low level
GK201002017). We would like to express our gratitude to the local
residents and their knowledgeable guide. He Dazhou and Liu Rong
made a contribution to questionnaire survey. We also appreciate
constructive advices of anonymous reviewers.
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