Air Pollution Governance System: Application of Organizational Network Analysis of Clean Air Law Enforcement

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Sustainable Agricultural Extention and Education, Faculty of Agricultural Economics and Developement, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran.

2 Social Business Institude, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Air pollution is a significant environmental challenge that has been constantly increasing over recent years and  public awareness and concern about its impacts on human health and ecosystems have been grown. Air pollution can originate from natural sources or human activities and it has serious effects on human health, including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and also harms the environment. This research focuses on air pollution governance and organizational network analysis in implementing clean air laws. Therefore, government and non-governmental entities related to the clean air laws have been identified and their relationships modeled using information extraction and natural language processing methods. Then, a network of relationships among these entities is constructed, and various network indicators were used to analyze the characteristics and properties of the network. Moreover, centrality measures were utilized to measure the micro-level features of the network. Lastly, the governance regime of air pollution based on clean air laws is examined using network density and concentration indicators. The results indicate that the network density index estimated a very low level of cooperation, coordination, and organizational coherence with an 8% rate. Additionally, the network in-degree centralization index at a the rate of 57.22% suggests a high concentration of power within the organization sector. In this manner, the governance system of air pollution in Iran appears to be both centralized and disorganized, with a lack of coordination and cooperation between different sectors evident in the organizational network. More importantly, the actions of the clean air law are not implemented without collaboration with others, and the air pollution governance system is inefficient. To improve this system, multiple measures are needed, including enhancing monitoring, promoting collaboration and resource allocation, raising public awareness, and ensuring necessary resources. Additionally, all organizations and society should collaborate in reducing air pollution to achieve a significant improvement in air quality and environmental protection.

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