Risk Evaluation of “Not-In-My-Back-Yard” Conflict Potential in Facilities Group: A Case Study of Chemical Park in Xuwei New District, China

Abstract

The social risk of chemical industry park projects attracts much attention, as they are perceived to yield strong environmental risks. This paper systematically evaluates the social risk of Xuwei Chemical Park in China, which was investigated as an example to guide the risk control strategy of conflict in industrial facilities for developing countries. The results show that residents and government departments have a resistance to the risks of the project as a stronger sense of group risk perception (the value is 7 × 10−6) compared with the basic value of 7 × 10−5. By contrast, the low value of group risk perception was evaluated in an enterprise group (7 × 10−4), indicating that the risks of petrochemical projects are often accepted. The expert group’s risk perception regarding petrochemical projects is consistent with the basic value. This is a very interesting finding indicating that the greater the experience, the more the support for petrochemical projects. The knowledge and information from education or experience improve the judgment of the risk of the facility, which increases the individual’s rational assessment comprehension of risk. Moreover, factors that are significantly related to residents’ attitudes are information cognitive factors (trust in information publicity and petrochemical project understanding), and project influencing factors (project planning rationality, quality of life improvement, and economic development satisfaction). Among them, the degree of trust in information disclosure has the highest degree of influence, followed by the level of education, while the satisfaction with economic development has the lowest degree of influence. Therefore, improving the trust of residents in the information disclosure of petrochemical projects should be the core of the government’s risk control policy.