Characterizing Local Environmental Risks: A Study of Local Perceptions. A. Bostrom, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0345 USA
Environmental issues can be categorized a number of ways, including by the activities that produce them (e.g., automobile emissions), the medium (e.g., air pollution), and the pollutant (e.g., carbon dioxide). Such categorizations can facilitate or obscure specific environmental management strategies, for example if they are translated into organizational structures. Not only is public support for environmental management strategies often essential, but public opinion about and input into environmental management is often actively solicited. To extend existing research on how people think about the environment and perceive environmental risks, an interview protocol based on a mental models approach was designed to elicit local politicians’ own characterizations of the Atlanta environment and categorizations of environmental issues. Leading members (N=32) of the Neighborhood Planning Units (NPUs) of Atlanta were interviewed in 1994 to elicit their beliefs about and assessment of local environmental issues. Asked midway through the interview to name the top three environmental risks in Atlanta, most respondents made generic references to water quality (81%) and air quality (59%). About a fourth included in these descriptions specific mention of sewage or vehicles, respectively. In a subsequent rating task, however, mobile source pollution rated ninth, well below its standing in the open-ended results, and below the rating of environmental stress factors, which include such stressors and crime and population growth. Implications for comparative risk exercises and risk communications are discussed.