Comparative Study of Air Quality Report and Citizens’Subjective Assessment in Beijing

The objective of this research is to explore whether the subjective assessment to the air quality of Beijing citizens is different from the Air Pollution Index(API) reported by the Beijing Environmental Protection Agency(EPA). Ninety citizens were randomly selected to evaluate the air quality of Beijing via seventy-six photos taken in 38 days (two photos per day) from December 2010 to March 2011. The subjective assessment of the air quality was compared with the API reported by EAP. The T-test shows that the subjective assessment of Beijing citizens is more severe than the API by EAP, p0.01.