Association of population migration with air quality: Role of city attributes in China during COVID-19 pandemic (2019-2021).

Atmospheric pollution studies have linked diminished human activity during the COVID-19 pandemic to improve air quality. This study was conducted during January to March (2019-2021) in 332 cities in China to examine the association between population migration and air quality, and examined the role of three city attributes (pollution level, city scale, and lockdown status) in this effect. This study assessed six air pollutants, namely CO, NO2, O3, PM10, PM2.5, and SO2, and measured meteorological data, with-in city migration (WCM) index, and inter-city migration (ICM) index. A linear mixed-effects model with an autoregressive distributed lag model was fitted to estimate the effect of the percent change in migration on air pollution, adjusting for potential confounding factors. In summary, lower migration was associated with decreased air pollution (other than O3). Pollution change in susceptibility is more likely to occur in NO2 decrease and O3 increase, but unsusceptibility is more likely to occur in CO and SO2, to city attributes from low migration. Cities that are less air polluted and population-dense may benefit more from decreasing PM10 and PM2.5. The associations between population migration and air pollution were stronger in cities with stringent traffic restrictions than in cities with no lockdowns. Based on city attributes, an insignificant difference was observed between the effects of ICM and WCM on air pollution. Findings from this study may gain knowledge about the potential interaction between migration and city attributes, which may help decision-makers adopt air-quality policies with city-specific targets and paths to pursue similar air quality improvements for public health but at a much lower economic cost than lockdowns.

Factors Affecting City Image During the COVID-19 Era1

This study examined the perceived contingent factors that affect South Korean citizens’ image of the city they reside in. The respondents in this study perceived the image of their city through two dimensions––leading and safe––during the COVID-19 era. When respondents perceived the openness and expertise of the local government, the transformational and transactional leadership of the government leader, liberal political orientation of the leader, lower degree of law compliance of the mayor, high degree of citizenship, and high level of living infrastructure and competitiveness as attributes of the city, they were more likely to perceive the city as having a “leading” image. The perceived cultural characteristics of the local government, specifically the factor of hierarchy and regulation, the perceptions of citizenship, and all three variables regarding the perceptions related to city attributes (i.e., environmental, cultural, and living infrastructures and competitiveness) positively influenced the perception of a “safe” city image. Based on the results, various theoretical and practical implications were discussed in this study. © 2022, Center for Asian Public Opinion Research and Collaboration Initiative. All rights reserved.