The socioeconomic factors influencing the PM2.5 levels of 160 cities in China

PM2.5 pollution has emerged in Chinese cities due to the acceleration of its social economy; changes in socio-economic factors result in variations in urban PM(2.5 )levels. As the detection of the extensive socioeconomic factors influencing PM2.5 concentration in literature is insufficient, questions regarding whether there are neglected factors and the relationships among various socioeconomic factors and PM2.5 pollution remain un-explored. Benefiting from the data mining technique, this study employs association rule mining to identify the critical factors from 44 socioeconomic factors, and their underlying associative relationships with PM(2.5)pollution are extracted. Considering the annual, seasonal, and weekly scenarios of 160 cities with varying PM2.5 levels, the hidden patterns reflecting the difference of factors' diverse contributions to different types of cities are further revealed. The main results reveal the following: most northern cities face more PM2.5 concentration on weekends; PM2.5 pollution in the southern areas during the winter is more deteriorating; Beijing exhibits high PM2.5 levels but extremely low seasonal variance. Further, the urban land utilization structure, electricity consumption and its structure, industrial soot emissions, and traffic of passengers and freight are confirmed as critical factors. These findings present practical implications for PM2.5 pollution control and sustainable development of Chinese cities. Summary of the main finding: Critical socioeconomic factors influencing PM2.5 levels are identified from 44 potential factors under annual, seasonal, and weekly scenarios.