About this Research Topic

Background

The indoor-outdoor environment air quality around buildings is very important. Air pollution is a huge environmental risk to health, and reducing this would considerably reduce the disease burden from respiratory diseases. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as of 2019, 99% of the world population was inhabiting areas where the air quality concentration values were higher than the WHO air quality guidelines. Evidence also suggests that most of the estimated premature deaths due to poor air quality occur in low and middle-income regions and these also account for poor indoor air quality due to the design of the houses and the use of fossil fuels for cooking.

Whilst considerable work has been performed in high-income regions regarding air quality around buildings, there is scant research in this area with respect to low-income regions. In these areas, a number of questions arise as to how the built environment can be harnessed to (i) innovatively tackle the air quality issues specific to such regions in a sustainable manner, given the resource constraints, and (ii) how these inform and or are informed by the policies, learning and research in these regions.

We are interested in Original Research, Perspective and Review articles that directly address the difficulties in applying the fundamental science of measuring, assessing and building policies regarding the indoor-outdoor environment air quality around buildings in developing countries. This collection is multidisciplinary in approach, ranging from the fundamental science, to the unique built environment factors in these regions, and the influence of measurement methods and policy implementation. Successful case studies that can trace the results to fundamental knowledge are particularly welcome. Also studies that shed light on the constraints and effects of lack of air quality monitors in these regions will be helpful for policy makers.

We welcome, but are not limited to, these topics:
• Coupled indoor-outdoor air-quality studies;
• Measurements, modelling, built environment design, policy, implementation;
• Construction environment studies, educational institutions, industrial and office environments;
• Digital measurements of indoor/outdoor air quality;
• Policies and their intent;
• Carbon neutral built environment;
• Risk characterisation, mitigation and health burden;
• Air quality reduction cases in the built environment;
• Constraints and effects of lack of air quality monitors in low resource regions.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review

Keywords: Coupled Indoor-Outdoor Air Quality, Indoor Air Quality, Outdoor Air Quality, Low-Resource Regions, Low-Income Regions, Built Environment

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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