Evaluation of environmental awareness and behavior of citizens (case study: Yazd urban population)

Background and Objective: Nowadays, with the increasing environmental issues such as energy crisis, climate change, waste generation and destruction of natural resources and the increase of waste materials due to the development of urbanization, human impact on the environment is one of the most challenging issues of the scientific community. The purpose of this study was to measure the level of awareness and environmental behaviors of Yazd citizens. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 1000 residents of Yazd in 2018 by cluster sampling. The data collection tool was a standard questionnaire for knowledge, attitude and environmental behavior. The score range for the three knowledge, attitude and practice structures was 0-12, 13-65, and 17-55, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and analytical tests at the significance level of 0.05 using spss16 software. Results: One hundred percent of the questionnaires were completed. Mean score of knowledge and environmental attitude was 8.23 ± 3.92 and 36.15 ± 8.28 (moderate), and of the environmental behavior was 26.19 ± 7.14 (poor). There was a significant statistical difference between knowledge and environmental behavior of women and men. The level of knowledge and environmental behavior of women was higher (p<0.05). The largest source of environmental information was radio and television (42%). Conclusion:  Despite the relatively good awareness and attitude towards the environment, the majority of the people had poor performance due to the environmental behavior. Therefore, environmental awareness cannot be a guarantee of environmental behavior. It also needs to encourage persuasive social conditions and structure and facilitating environmental behaviors.