The human health impacts of air pollution in Agbogbloshie, Ghana

**AVOID any grammar and spelling mistakes.
**Choose 6 references based on instructions I provided in the document and just provide the links to the resources used, somewhere in the end so I can access them too. Follow APA in-text citation format in the paper.

Research proposal paper (2,500 words)
Title: The human health impacts of air pollution in Agbogbloshie, Ghana
The research proposal paper is your course project. It is an essay that demonstrates the ability of the student to describe an environmental issue and propose research that aims to explore one relevant aspect. Students are asked to describe the nature and significance of the environmental issue and to propose different ways to collect and analyze primary data in order to investigate one aspect relevant to the issue, such as its causes or its impacts. Students may also propose to conduct various studies to learn more about the seriousness of an environmental issue (its severity or/and extent). Moreover, students can choose to study the effectiveness of existing environmental policies or their implementation to address an environmental issue in a particular location.
The research proposal is not a research report. It is not intended to describe the outcome of previous research relative to an environmental issue or some of its aspects. Students are expected to do their own research to choose the appropriate research methods relevant to their research need to explore an aspect associated with an environmental issue they have identified. 
The research proposal is restricted to the study of one specific aspect of a local environmental issue. While students are expected to provide a clear and comprehensive description of one local environmental issue of their choice, their research proposal should only aim to explore one aspect related to it. As students concentrate on one aspect of an environmental issue in one location, they are expected to explore the different facets that help to determine it. As an example, the human health impacts of air pollution in a small town depend on the nature and extent of the pollution as well as the exposure and vulnerability of local population to it. Therefore, the research proposal consists of describing the collection and analysis of primary data related to these components in order to determine the human health impacts of the local air pollution.
If a research on one aspect of an environmental issue was conducted at a large scale, it is possible to propose a research that investigates the same aspect at a smaller (or local) scale. 
While there are multiple ways to write a research proposal, a specific format is required in this assignment to encompass all important components. A research proposal is composed of different parts. The use of pictures is not allowed as they tend to occupy too much space in your paper. The different parts of your paper should be in harmony with one another. References in text should be APA format and listed at the end of the paper in APAformat (not included in word count for the paper)
References
The references should follow the APA citation format. Do not forget to include in-text citations throughout your paper. Two references should be published materials (peer-reviewed) from scientific journals. You should have at least six (6) references that may include official government documents. You can also use United Nations, International Organizations and Non-Government Organizations official reports and policies. You should use all listed references in your text, using proper in-text citations (APA format). The references account 5% of the total grade of your paper.
Format
Your research proposal assignment should be in word document (.doc or .docx), double spaced except the references, page numbered, and in Times New Roman 12 points. No pictures are permitted in the paper. Please do not use pdf!
The main parts of a research proposal paper should include: 
-. Introduction,
-. Research methodology,
-. Conclusion 
i. Introduction 
The introduction is the first section of your paper. It introduces the local environmental issue that you chose to describe, and the aspect that you plan to explore based on this issue. It is intended to attract the attention of the reader and guide him or her to understand what to expect in the remaining part of your paper. It carries 35 % of your research proposal paper total grade. It should include at least the description of the local environmental issue (location, nature, extent, significance, stakeholders, etc), a research objective, and hypotheses.
The description of the local environmental issue should be supported by relevant facts and figures. The significance of the issue and the importance of your research area can be highlighted by stating the potential costs of inaction. Make sure not to describe the results of the research you plan to conduct in your Introduction. As an example, if you choose to do your research on the cause of an environmental issue, you can describe the impacts of the issue and its severity (or extent) in the Introduction. However, you can talk about the result of a research similar to what you plan to do if that research was conducted at a larger scale than yours or at a different location. As an example, you can talk about the social impacts of drought in the Sahel region in your Introduction if you want to do your research on the social impacts of drought in a village (or city) in Niger, which is part of that region.
The statement of the objective of your paper or presentation is crucial in the Introduction. As it is a research objective it should aim to explore or investigate an aspect relevant to the local environmental issue that you chose. For example, your objective can be to explore the economic causes of deforestation in a village in Tanzania. You should only have one research objective exploring only one aspect relevant to the local environmental issue. Your objective should be consistent with your title. If the title is not specific enough to infer your research area, your objective should do so. As an example, if your title is the depletion of fish stock in a Kenyan river, your objective may either explore the causes or the social impacts of this issue and identify a more specific location.
Hypotheses are part of the main components of your Introduction. They refer to an educated guess, expressed by a statement that shows a correlation between dependent and independent variables. This correlation helps to provide a prediction of the outcome of the research you propose to conduct. Your hypotheses should be relevant to your research objective and determine the different elements of your research methods. You should have at least two hypotheses that are derived from the research objective. Students are encouraged to identify the variables (dependent and independent) that make up the hypotheses by doing some research on potential correlated aspects relevant to the research objective. If your research objective is to explore the causes of a local environmental issue, the aspects that reveal the issue would constitute the dependent variables while the factors that may have generated these aspects represent the independent variables. As an example, the issue of overfishing may be expressed by a significant decline in fish catch over time or the depletion of certain (vulnerable) fish species in a local coastal area. The significant catch of juvenile fish and degradation of fish habitats caused by the prevalence of the use of destructive fishing methods and unsustainable tourism activities are potential factors that may lead to both decline in fish catch and loss of certain species. In this case, the dependent variables are the amount of fish catch or/and the population of certain (vulnerable) fish species while the prevalence of the different fishing methods and the nature of coastal tourism activities constitute the independent variables. The research methodology explains how the independent and dependent variables are correlated as you test your hypotheses by analyzing the primary data you propose to collect.
ii. Research methodology
The research methodology is the most important part of your paper as it describes the different ways you will conduct your research based on your research objective and hypotheses. It accounts 35 % of the total research proposal paper grade. As your research aims to explore the correlation between independent and dependent variables, it is intended to collect and analyze data relevant to these variables in order to test your hypotheses. The research methods that you chose are therefore relevant to the data that you need and the way you plan to analyze them to test your hypotheses. Answering four specific questions helps you provide a comprehensive description of your research methodology. These questions include: what method is relevant to your research? what primary data do you need? why is your research method relevant to your data? and how do you collect and analyze your data? 
Firstly, the research methodology should describe the research methods that you propose for your research by providing some information about their nature, their objective and the types of primary data that may be collected and analyzed through their use. You are welcome to use natural or social science in your research methods based on your research objective. As an example, the use of cost-benefit analysis is an economic research tool that can be used in social science while population ecology is a branch of natural science that helps to understand the dynamics of species population. At this stage, the explanation of the research methods is limited to its description and its application to a known case. It should not refer to your research project as you will have the chance to explain why these methods are relevant to the data you need. Instead, you can provide some examples of the use of the proposed research methods in other research cases. Since you are expected to collect primary data, it is not acceptable to propose desk research to collect secondary data as your main research method.
Secondly, the research methodology describes the primary data that you need based on your variables identified in your hypotheses. You are welcome to use social and natural data. Social data are data that can be collected through the use of research methods associated with social science while natural data are collected with the use of natural science. As an example, average income level of a fishing community is social and economic data while the health of coral reefs along the shore of Kenya is natural data. Moreover, you are required to propose the collection of measurable (quantitative) data in your research in order to determine the correlation between the variables. However, spatial data are also acceptable to test your hypotheses. It is important to emphasize that the research proposal should mainly collect primary data. You are therefore expected to describe the original data that you plan to collect and analyze. 
Thirdly, you should describe the reason why your research methods are relevant to the (primary) data that you need. The choice of your research methods is mainly related to the data you plan to collect and analyze. However, you can also choose relevant factors that support the choice of your research methods. As an example, you can explain that the research methods produce the same data that you plan to collect and that they can also be used to analyze them.
Finally, you should describe how you will collect and analyze your data. This step may be part of the research method that you have chosen. If underwater survey is the research method that you choose to study the health of the marine ecosystem, the method for collecting data related to this  method may consist of counting the number of certain fish species or taking sample of corals to learn about their health. Likewise, if water quality assessment is the research method, collecting water sample and living aquatic organisms may help determine the quality of the water. Some information about the research participants and equipment that you plan to use for your research may also be described in your research methodology.
 The analysis of your data is the process that you propose to test your hypotheses. You may propose to compare data collected from different sites in order to test your hypotheses. Data collected from two different locations that may have similar physical, social and economic conditions may be compared to identify some similarities and differences relevant to the variables in your hypotheses. In addition, you may use different analytical tools to analyze your data. Geographic Information System (GIS) is an example of tool that can be used to analyze spatial data. While it is not required to fully understand the use of an analytical tool, students are encouraged to make their own research to inquire about how the tool was used elsewhere in order to provide a sufficient description of their research methodology. Statistical tool is an important way to analyze data. However, students are only required to propose their statistical analysis at the sample level (not population). In other words, the use of inferential statistics is not within the scope of this course.
iii. Conclusion
The conclusion carries 20% of your paper total grade. It includes the restatement of your hypotheses, a summary of the different parts of your paper, what you might expect from your research, your opinion, and policy alternatives that would address the issue based on your expectations. Policy alternatives incorporate various policies that the Government may need to develop to address the issue based on the potential outcomes of the research. Use different policy instruments when necessary.