Indoor Air Quality Emissions & Modelling System

Tender description

<p>Outdoor air quality emissions and modelling is well established in the UK, the outputs from outdoor air quality models are frequently used to estimate human exposure for health impacts studies, assuming that outdoor pollution estimates are a valid proxy for all exposure. Improvements in outdoor air quality and a growing understanding of the importance of indoor air quality, coupled with the fact that most people spend the majority of their time indoors, has made it apparent that the contribution of indoor pollution to overall daily exposure estimates of the accumulated human exposure, is important. The indoor air environment may contain in excess of 900 chemicals, particles, and biological materials, all with the potential to cause health impacts. This activity will identify a reduced set of key indoor air pollutants, or pollutant families (chemical and biological) as well as their main sources, which are required to characterise overall air quality. By identifying a number of key pollutants and their sources or family types, it will become possible to quantify the contribution of indoor pollution to overall pollution exposure and permit the development of targeted mitigation advice and policies to further reduce personal exposure. The calculation of air quality exposure relies upon the availability of emission estimates and a suitable air quality model. This activity will deliver extendable software and data tools capable of calculating pollutant emissions estimates for a range of representative buildings, indoor environments, and activities to capture a suitable UK representation. To support the use and analysis of this data the activity will also deliver a simple indoor air quality model (e.g. maybe a box model) which will enable the emission estimates to be validated and for total exposure estimates to be made.</p> Keywords: Grants