Human awareness and behavior on the driving of sustainable city environment

•Human awareness and behavior driven environmental protection was investigated.•Traditional media can be positive on bridging gaps between awareness & behaviors.•Citizens using the digital media may have weak awareness & behavior motivation.•Joint of government, media and citizens can contribute to sustainable environment. As urbanization accelerates and population density & activities increase, the conflict between humans and urban environmental issues becomes prominent. The demand for urban environmental protection involving broad participation of human (e.g., citizens) is rising. Media play a key role in promoting environmental protection awareness and behaviors of citizens. However, there is still a disconnect between media information and citizens' awareness and behaviors, of which the synergistic associations have not been analyzed. This study synthetically explored the coupling relationship between media channels (including traditional & digital media) and environmental protection awareness & behaviors of citizens in Chinese cities through the questionnaire survey. Although the usage rate of traditional media was approximately 50% of that of digital media, traditional media had a significantly greater impact on bridging the gaps between environmental protection awareness and behaviors. Among citizens using the digital media, 60% exhibited weak awareness (e.g., concern level, risk awareness, anxious psychology and cognitive level) and behavior motivation (including recycling, low-carbon living, and public welfare) regarding environmental protection. Improvement measures were further proposed, including strengthening top-level government design, leveraging advanced digital technology, and providing more incentives to citizens. Our findings can contribute to human-driven urban environmental protection and the sustainable development of society.