Environmental quality or behavioural cognitions? Identifying variables that can be used to classify intended civic engagement against transportation noise exposure

The European Environmental Noise Directive opens the door for the public to participate in the development and review of noise action plans. Regarding health inequities related to environmental noise exposure, we aimed to identify determinants that influence residents' civic engagement against transportation noise exposure. We defined four variable groups representing either environmental quality with indicators of (1) noise exposure and (2) environmental resources or behavioural cognitions with indicators related to (3) civic engagement and (4) generalised emotions and cognitions. We used data collected from 3,743 participants in the population-based KORA study in the Augsburg region, Germany, and employed Conditional Inference Trees (CIT) to identify variable sets within these four groups that are most likely to classify civic engagement intentions. A final CIT model encompassed all variables. Participants' social characteristics were included in each of our CIT models. Results suggest interactions between environmental quality (related to sound/atmosphere in the sleeping room) and income and between income and emotions (positive affectivity) with respect to engagement intentions. When considered simultaneously, engagement-specific cognitions appeared as more relevant for engagement intentions than environmental quality. This finding indicates that noise action planning should take behavioural cognitions into account when designing participation processes.