Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Residential VOC Emissions and Their Contribution to Indoor–Outdoor Air Pollution Coupling and Urban Atmospheric Chemistry
Keywords:
indoor air quality; volatile organic compounds; urban atmospheric chemistry; indoor-outdoor coupling; spatiotemporal modeling; building emissions; smart infrastructure; environmental governanceAbstract
Residential buildings represent a pervasive yet under-characterized source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that profoundly influence both indoor air quality and the reactive chemical environment of the outdoor urban atmosphere. The spatiotemporal dynamics of these emissions—governed by building materials, consumer product usage, occupant behavior, and ventilation regimes—create a complex coupling between indoor and outdoor domains that remains poorly integrated into air quality management frameworks. This paper advances a systems-level perspective on residential VOC emissions, examining the multiscale spatial heterogeneity from individual material outgassing to neighborhood-level aggregate fluxes, as well as the temporal signatures shaped by diurnal occupancy patterns, seasonal climate forcing, and episodic events. We analyze the mechanisms of indoor-to-outdoor transport and their implications for ozone and secondary organic aerosol formation in urban canopies, highlighting structural trade-offs between energy-efficient building envelopes and dilution of indoor pollutants. Computational architectures that couple building-level emission models with urban microclimate and atmospheric chemistry simulations are reviewed, along with the deployment of low-cost sensor networks and data assimilation strategies necessary to capture ground truth across heterogeneous housing stocks. The paper further addresses governance challenges, including regulatory fragmentation between indoor and outdoor air quality standards, equity concerns arising from differential exposures in vulnerable communities, and the resilience of monitoring infrastructure under climate change. We argue that achieving sustainable urban air quality necessitates an integrated socio-technical infrastructure paradigm in which residential VOC emissions are treated as a controllable boundary flux within city-scale atmospheric chemistry management. The analysis culminates in policy recommendations for harmonized indoor-outdoor standards, anticipatory building codes, and community-based sensing frameworks that collectively address the intertwined fates of indoor environments and urban airsheds.
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