Environmental Management Assignment

A Report on Haze Problem in
Beijing China
Introduction
Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau (BMEPB) is located in Beijing, the capital
of China, which is a government department. It is responsible for the supervision and
administration of the environment in Beijing. Currently, haze has seriously affected people's
lives in Beijing, so that BMEPB pay more attention to air quality problems. PM2.5 is fine
particulate matter, which is an important indicator of air quality monitoring. PM2.5 value is
lower, the better the air quality, on the contrary, the value is higher, the worse the air quality.
Practical Problem
One of most common environmental issue is pollution in China. Industrialization in China has
increase, due it large manufacturing plants. Pollution has caused increase in health and
environmental problems in this country. High population growth in China has led to increase in
different type of pollution namely soil contamination, waste, electronic waste and industrial
pollution. Industrial pollution in China is one of major challenge which effect pose political
challenges to the government. Majority of respiratory diseases and premature death in China are
caused by industrial pollution. Cancer is the leading cause of death due to industrial pollution.
Each year air pollution has resulted to hundreds of thousands death alone, with over 500 million
of citizens unable to access clean and safe water to drink and only 1% of country population
who dwell in city breathe safe air. Large part of China ocean lack marine life due to massive
algal bloom. The pollution also has extended to neighboring countries; acid rain has been
witnessed in Tokyo and Seoul and even extends to Los Angeles, USA. Acid rain is made up of
nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide (New York Times, 2007).
According to a report by World Bank conducted by China National Environmental Agency
(2007), air pollution causes over 350,000 premature deaths per year. Other 60,000 people die to
water-borne pollution related cause such as stomach cancer, bladder cancer and diarrhoea.
Research problem
Air pollution is the most common type of pollution in China mostly in cities where there is large
number of people and industries. Air pollution is mainly caused by fossil fuels burning mainly
coal which have led to decline of life expectancy level by 5.5 years. Coal smoke, sulfur dioxide
and particulate matter form most common air pollutants. In large cities air pollution is mixture
of coal combustion and motor vehicle emission. In January 2013 recorder highest level of
particulate matter that is PM2.5 with almost 1000 μg per m3 with traces of smog being recorded in
Calfornia, USA, (China State Environmental Protection Agency, 2013).

China is facing the worst challenge in world when it comes to air pollution despite its effort to
improve the level of air quality. Outdoor air pollution is one of priority and concern to
government of China due to its effect to public health. Estimates done by World Bank (2017)
showed that China spend almost 3.3% of its gross domestic product on air pollution cost related
activities. Also it has affected mortality and morbidity and changes in respiratory diseases,
(Chen et al, 2004).
Research objectives
The government of Beijing has implemented the policy of energy saving and emission reduction,
reducing PM2.5 from human factors. But the effect is not obvious. The research objectives are
 Does the natural factor also affect the value of PM2.5? The purpose of this research is to
understand whether the concentration of PM2.5 will change with other natural factors
such as temperature or wind speed.
 To establish PM2.5 pollution index estimation model based on this natural factors.
 Predict the probability of the change of PM2.5 value under which natural factors.
Literature review
Various research have been undertaken to identify the risk posed by outdoor air pollution China.
Research that was conducted in Wuhan, Hong Kong and Shanghai identified the health effects in
areas where air quality were below the least air quality in China. The study utilized time series
analysis, (Wong et al., 2008). Sufficient evidence was found to correlate health hazards with air
pollution. Many respiratory and cancer diseases in this cities are contributed by air pollutants.
With air pollution posing a major threats to health of many Chinese and being a major challenge
that the government must find solution to it.
Several studies conducted in Europe and North America have identify long term exposure to
pollutants has effects on mortality. Those persons who are exposed to air which is polluted for
long time tend to get more disease and to have premature deaths, (Pope and Dockery, 2006).
Although it is not clear whether this findings can apply to China due higher disparity in air
pollution characteristics. Although few cohort studies have been carried out in China, cross-
sectional studies results have also suggested increased mortality is associated by long term
exposure to pollutants.
They are major discrepancy between Chinese government assurance to it citizen and negative
western view from some sources in Western countries. China is at grave pollution it is making all
necessary measures and progress to reduce pollution. Also western countries were in same
position during their early developmental stages, (Vennemo et al., 2009). China pollution is
improving and stabilizing its particle emissions, but emission of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen
dioxide has been increasing rapidly.
China is facing the worst challenge in world when it comes to air pollution despite its effort to
improve the level of air quality. Outdoor air pollution is one of priority and concern to

government of China due to its effect to public health. Estimates done by World Bank (2017)
showed that China spend almost 3.3% of its gross domestic product on air pollution cost related
activities. Also it has affected mortality and morbidity and changes in respiratory diseases,
(Chen et al, 2004).
China is in process of rapid urbanization because of rise in economic growth. As result many
cities are suffering from air pollution. More than 66% of cities in China have not attained
ambient air quality level which is desirable for urban population. Beijing is typical
representative of growing cities in China. Its effort is evidence that the struggle of improving air
quality can be met in this error of rapid industrialization and explosion of motor use, (Jiming H.
& Litao W., 2005). During recent decades China has experiences smog or haze which is
characterized by PM2.5 high levels and reduction in visibility mainly in large cities with high
population.
Research Methodology
The research followed knowledge discovery in database (KDD) process to find information in
the data. To obtain knowledge from data obtained from UCL machine learning repository site.
Figure 2: KDD Process
The research made use of secondary data obtained from UCL website. The data set shows hourly
PM2.5 data and other environment factors in Beijing from 2010 to 2014.
There were thirteen attributes in the Beijing PM2.5 data set. These attributes represent the
following meanings:
No: Row number
Year: Year of data
Month: Month of data
Day: Day of data
Hour: Hour of data

PM2.5: PM2.5 concentration
DEWP: Dew Point
TEMP: Temperature
PRES: Pressure
CBWD: Combined wind direction
LWS: Cumulated wind speed
LS: Cumulated hours of snow
LR: Cumulated hours of rain
All the variables were scale variables which were continuous and numeric. A screen shot of data
variable is shown below
Table below shows independent variables and dependents variables in the regression model
adopted in inferential data analysis.
Independents variables Dependent variable Method of analysis
Dew Point
Cumulated hours of rain
Pressure
Temperature
Cumulated hours of snow
PM2.5 concentration Inferential statistics: logistics
regression model
Descriptive statistics: bar
graph, line plot, scatter plot,
measure of dispersion and