Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavior towards Environmental Quality

We examine the relationship between individual knowledge and attitude towards environmental behavior, namely river ecology, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Environmental problem is one of the most serious challenges of 21st century. Air and water pollution, global warming and climate change, loss of biodiversity and rain forest destruction, and hazardous waste, and so on are some of the examples of current environmental problems. They also constitute local as well as global threat to the future. The relationship between human beings and environment is driven by several factors. These include socioeconomic characteristics like income, education, culture, religion and traditional practices. These characteristics affect individual’s knowledge, attitude and behavior towards environment. We argue that knowledge and attitude directly and indirectly affect individual decision for consumption pattern, use of natural resources, and behavior towards environmental quality. This affects current health as well as sustainability of natural environment. Thus, it is important to know how people think and behave to protect the earth and to sustain the environment. Using data collected from in-person interview of 1200 households in Kathmandu, we examine the importance and impact of knowledge and attitude towards behavior and bring to light any discrepancies between knowledge, attitude and behavior towards river health and restoration. We use knowledge attitude and behavior framework to investigate the relation between knowledge, attitude and behavior towards the quality of water in the Bagmati River in Kathmandu, Nepal