Environmental Management (2012) 50:505–513
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
Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
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 environment. The perception
order of pollution 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, Chang’an Road, Yanta District, Xi’an, 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
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.
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 eventually
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Environmental pollution

Perception of Environmental pollution

Knowledge

No
Action is needed No action
Changing Experience

Yes

No
Reducing losses Moving

Yes

Action

Fig. 1 The process of environmental pollution perception

generate feedback and affect the perception of the residents
on the environment (Fig. 1).
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.
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.
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 citizen’s 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,
especially reports on environmental pollution perception.
The reliability of the results of previous studies is affected
since variable characteristics were not considered. The v2
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.
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,
Hancheng City (109°130 60000 –110°580 52400 E, 34°340 05600 –
35°610 18800 N), approximately 180 km north from the city
center of Xi’an, China. Coal, iron ore, limestone, 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:

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gangue, 0.3 million t; concentrator waste, 2.46 million t; Table 1 The demographical and social characteristics of sample
sulfur dioxide, 0.048 million t; dust, 0.012 million t; and Characteristics (%)
sewage 0.78 million t. About 3.55 million t of gangue has
been accumulated over the years, and 400 million m3 of gas Age group \30 36.3
emissions are unutilized. Other nitrogen oxides, sulfides and 30–40 27.5
surface water have different degrees of pollution. These 41–50 18.7
pollutants pose serious risks to health, and hindered the 51–60 10.4
economic development in this area. [60 7.0
Education Primary school 7.5
Questionnaire and Survey Junior high school 32.8
High school 39.9
The perceptions of environmental pollution can be divided Secondary technical school 9.9
into four categories: (1) degree of pollution, (2) environ- University 9.9
mental satisfaction, (3) health concerns, and (4) pollution Length of residence 0–5a 10.7
causes. The perceptions on the degree of pollution include 6–10a 11.0
perceptions on air pollution, water pollution, noise pollu- 11–20a 22.5
tion, and environmental sanitation. In addition, the ques- 21–30 14.8
tionnaire also gathered the attributes of residents, such as [30a 14.8
gender, age, educational level, occupation, length of resi- Aborigines 26.2
dence, and proximity to mine. Such data could tell whether Gender Male 56.8
the sample was representative of the general population Female 43.2
and the relationships between socioeconomic status and Occupation Industry and mining 22.0
perception of the residents (Jim and Chen 2006). The Five- Education or technical staff 9.5
point Likert scale was used to measure the intensity of Freelance 25.1
environmental pollution (Leiserowitz 2006). For example, Retirement 8.8
the satisfaction survey was evaluated through the Likert Business 7.3
scale using the range from (1) very dissatisfied to (5) very
Agriculture, forestry, animal 9.9
satisfied. husbandry
Questionnaires were distributed in September 2008. Other 17.4
Participants were randomly selected based on their com- Proximity (distance from 1 \ 1 km 44.5
munities (villages) which kept basic information of resi- mine area) 1–2 km 22.7
dents. Despite of the difficulty, the household survey was 2–3 km 15.6
chosen (Whitmarsh 2009), because it allows samples to 3–4 km 2.4
more accurately represent the perception of the general 4–5 km 6.4
population than cyber survey. According to the data of [5 km 8.4
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 where A is the perception intensity of certain residents; Vi
effective ratio was about 75.6 %. The total Alpha reli- is the score of certain residents holding viewpoint i; and Nij
ability coefficient of the questionnaires was above 0.8, is the number of certain residents holding the i views on the
indicating that the questionnaires have good credibility in investigated factor j.
general. Basic information about the samples is presented (2) Different genders, ages, and occupations residents
in Table 1. may have similar or different perception of environmental
pollution. Hence, the differences in the perceptions must be
Data Analysis determined using statistical tests, and the appropriate test-
ing methods must be carefully chosen.
(1) A mathematical model can be used to analyze the Firstly all value of Skewness and Kurtosis are not equal
differences in the perceptions of residents. For this purpose, zero (Table 2). Secondly we used single-sample Kol-
the mathematical model was: mogorov–Smirnov test (KS normality test) methods to test
P whether the sample data follow a normal distribution, but
Vi  Nij the P was less than 0.05, so the data are not normally
A¼ P ð1Þ
Nij distributed. We had to use non-parametric tests. The

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commonly used non-parametric tests are v2 test, rank sum
test, etc.
The v2 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).
The Mann–Whitney 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 Mann–Whitney statistical
value is computed as:
kðk þ 1Þ
U¼W
2 The scales (from 1 to 5) used to measure perception
where k is the number of sample data in the sample group
corresponding to W.
The Kruskal–Wallis rank sum test is used for multiple
groups of ranked data, based on the principle that, for
k samples subject to the same distribution, the statistical
value H is subject to the v2 distribution of the degree of
freedom k-1 when the sample size is not too small.
12 X k R2
j indicating that the residents were dissatisfied with their
H¼  3ðN þ 1Þ
NðN þ 1Þ i¼1 nj
(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 of demographical and social factors of the
residents on environmental pollution perception can be
determined.
Results
Intensity of Environmental Pollution Perception
ð2Þ
intensity were: ‘‘light,’’ 1–2.4, ‘‘general,’’ 2.5–3.4, and
‘‘very serious,’’ 3.5–5. 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,
ð3Þ
environment.

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
s¼  1;
nðn  1Þ
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.
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
ð4Þ 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 management

Table 2 Intensity of environmental pollution perception

Air pollution Water pollution Sanitation Noise Environmental satisfaction Health concern

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

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Environmental Management (2012) 50:505–513
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 Mann–Whitney 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.
Table 3 Difference test of environmental pollution perception between genders
Air Water
pollution pollution
Mann–Whitney U 24357.000 24369.000
Z -0.737 -0.716
P 0.461 0.474
509
Effect of Age on Perception
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
variable.
Results of the statistical test show that age has significant
effect on the perception of environmental satisfaction, air
pollution, water pollution, and noise pollution (Table 4).
Effect of the Education Level on Perception
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).
Effect of Length of Residence 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.
Hence, the length of residence has a significant effect on
the perception of air pollution, water pollution, noise pol-
lution, and health concerns (P \ 0.05) (Table 4).
Effect of Proximity to Mine on Perception
The Kendall rank correlation test was adopted to determine
whether the perceptions of environmental pollution differ
with the proximity to mine.
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.
Effect of Occupation on Perception
The Kruskal–Wallis rank sum test, generally used to
compare multiple groups of rank data, was adopted to
Sanitation Noise Health Environmental
concern satisfaction
23635.500 25054.000 25088.000 24805.000
-1.257 -0.175 -0.160 -0.369
0.209 0.861 0.873 0.712
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Table 4 Kendall rank correlation test of ages, education, length of residence and proximity effect
Kendall’s 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 Kruskal–Wallis rank sum test of occupation effect

Air pollution Water pollution Sanitation Noise Environmental satisfaction Health concern

v2 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

determine whether there are occupation differences in the
environmental pollution perceptions.
Hence, occupation has a significant effect on the per-
ception of health concerns, noise pollution, and air pollu-
tion (P \ 0.05) (Table 5).
The effect of the demographical and social factors on
their perception of environmental pollution is summarized
in Table 6, based on the above statistical results.
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.
Relationship between Ordinal Variables
and Perceptions

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

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 pollution. The former can be further
and proximity to mine) have significant effects on per-
ceptions of environmental pollution (Table 7).
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

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Environmental Management (2012) 50:505–513 511

Fig. 3 Classification of
Nominal
demographical and social variable Occupation
factors variables Variables with significant
impact on the environmental
pollution perception Age
Demographical and Ordinal
social variables variable Education

length of residence
Variables with no significant
impact on the environmental Proximity
Gender
pollution perception

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

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.
Education has a negative relation with the perception of
water pollution, environmental sanitation, and noise pol-
lution. Generally, residents of high educational levels are
more sensitive to the environment (Kideghesho and others
2007). However, residents in the Hancheng mining area
with high education levels have less perception of water
pollution, environmental sanitation, and noise pollution,
which can be explained by cultural group character (Peng
and Zhou 2001). Groups sharing similar education levels
play the same political and economic roles, and thus have
similar perception intensities. Residents with high educa-
tion levels enjoy economic benefits from the exploration of
mineral resources, whereas those with low education levels
cannot enjoy the same economic benefits and even suffer
from losses caused by mineral exploration. For example,
the income and the dwelling environment of a number of
villagers with low education levels are seriously affected
by noise pollution and dust pollution. Thus, these residents
can better perceive environmental pollution, compared
with those who have high education levels are more tol-
erant of the environmental pollution.
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
environment the residents demand; thus, these residents
consider pollution as more serious and they are more
concerned with their health.
Proximity to mine has a negative relation with the per-
ception of water pollution, noise pollution, and health
concerns, as well as environmental satisfaction. Residents
living far from mining areas think that the degree of
environmental pollution is low and are more satisfied with
the environment. This is also known as the spatial levels of
environmental pollution perception, indicating that there
exists different levels of spatial distance while people’s
different sensory perception collecting environmental
information, under the same conditions, the environmental
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
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.
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

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512
Fig. 4 Difference of
environmental perception
between occupation groups
Education or Technical staff
Business
Industry and mining
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
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
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Environmental Management (2012) 50:505–513
Freelance
Retirement
Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry
Air pollution
Noise
Health concern
Other
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:
(1) Residents in the mining areas think that air pollution
is the most serious environmental pollution; followed
by noise pollution, environmental sanitation, and
water pollution.
(2) 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).
(3) The results of the study revealed that age, education,
length of residence, proximity to mine and occupation
have close associations with local people’s 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
Environmental Management (2012) 50:505–513
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.
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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