Local Air Quality Issues and Research Priorities Through the Lenses of Chilean Experts: An Ontological Analysis
Autor: | Thant Syn, Carlos Manzano, Richard Toro Araya, Manuel A. Leiva-Guzmán, Manuel Jácome, Carolina Molina |
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Rok vydání: | 2020 |
Předmět: |
Government
Knowledge management 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Process (engineering) Computer science business.industry Research Geography Planning and Development General Medicine 010501 environmental sciences 01 natural sciences Focus group Terminology Body of knowledge Multidisciplinary approach Local government Air Pollution Chile business Air quality index 0105 earth and related environmental sciences General Environmental Science |
Zdroj: | Integrated environmental assessment and managementREFERENCES. 17(1) |
ISSN: | 1551-3793 |
Popis: | Air pollution problems can be large, complex, and ill-structured. They can vary from location to location and combine many complex components: urban expansion, increasing vehicles and industrial emissions, biomass burning, geographic and meteorological conditions, cultural aspects, and economic effects. However, the existing research, accumulated knowledge, and local research priorities are spread over many disciplines and lack a systematic mapping to help manage and develop new strategies for researchers and policy makers. Ontological analysis can be used as a tool to capture this complexity through simple natural-language descriptions and a structured terminology. We describe the development of an ontological framework for "Air Quality Management in Chile" and its application to evaluate the current state of the research. The process was based on focus groups and validated by a panel of multidisciplinary experts. We used the developed framework to highlight the topics that have been heavily emphasized, lightly emphasized, or overlooked in the Chilean research. The framework developed can help researchers, practitioners, and policy makers systematically navigate the domain and provide the opportunity to correct blind spots by enabling more informed hypotheses that deal with air quality issues at a national level. We believe that applying this same process to different countries will yield different results (due to differences in local knowledge and experience). The framework presented could be used to evaluate other important stakeholders (government, media, NGOs, etc.), which will provide a complete picture of how local societies deal with air quality issues at different levels. Additionally, local government institutions will benefit from this analysis by improving funding allocation and opening new research opportunities to improve the distribution of the local body of knowledge. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:273-281. © 2020 SETAC. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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