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Influencing Factors of Stereotypes on Wastewater Treatment Plants- Case Study of 9 Wastewater Treatment Plants in Xi’an, China

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Abstract

As an indispensable part of cities, wastewater treatment plants play an important role in environmental protection and urbanization. However, the promotion of wastewater treatment plants has been consistently hindered by residents’ negative stereotypes and rejections, which is called “Not-In-My-Back-Yard” (NIMBY) effect. This study collected the first-hand data with the residents residing within 3 kilometers of 9 wastewater treatment plants in Xi’an, China through a survey. Keyword co-occurrence network analysis was conducted and the results illustrate that residents have stereotypes toward wastewater treatment plants. There are two types of residents’ stereotypes toward wastewater treatment plants: positive and negative. The positive stereotypes of wastewater treatment plants in turn can be subdivided into the three categories of treatment technologies, treatment results, and social impacts. But the negative stereotypes didn’t demonstrate meaningful categories. We also tried to identify the influencing factors that cause residents’ stereotypes. The distance from residents’ residence to the wastewater treatment plants has impacts on the stereotypes of residents’ who reside within 1000 meters of the wastewater treatment plant: the farther from the wastewater treatment plants their residence is, the more positive their stereotypes are. We also found that the more educated the participants are, the more positive stereotypes of wastewater treatment plants they have. Moreover, residents’ stereotypes toward wastewater treatment plants are more influenced by formal education. Non-formal education and informal learning probably have less influence on the promotion of wastewater treatment plants. Therefore, we propose to incorporate environmental education for sustainable development into formal education to increase residents’ acceptance of wastewater treatment plants.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the participants for their hard work and support for this study. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 72001167]; the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project [No. 2020M683434]; the Education Department of Shaanxi Province [No. 18JZ038].

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Hanliang Fu, Jiachen Niu

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an, 710055, China

    Hanliang Fu, Jiachen Niu, Pengdong Xue, Meng Sun & Hong Zhu

  2. Laboratory of Neuromanagement in Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an, 710055, China

    Hanliang Fu, Jiachen Niu, Pengdong Xue, Meng Sun & Hong Zhu

  3. Business, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia

    Zhifang Wu

  4. School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, 410083, China

    Baoquan Cheng

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  1. Hanliang Fu
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Correspondence to Baoquan Cheng.

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Fu, H., Niu, J., Wu, Z. et al. Influencing Factors of Stereotypes on Wastewater Treatment Plants- Case Study of 9 Wastewater Treatment Plants in Xi’an, China. Environmental Management 70, 526–535 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-022-01663-2

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