Sustainable Cities and Society 50 (2019) 101654

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Sustainable Cities and Society

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Indoor air quality management based on fuzzy risk assessment and its case T
study
⁎
Jing Yuana,b,c, , Zhi Chenb, Lexuan Zhongc, Baozhen Wanga
a
Green intelligence Environment School, Yangtze Normal University, 408100, China
b
The Department of Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, H3G1M8, Canada
c
Department of Engineering, University of Alberta, T6G1H9, Canada

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: A fuzzy synthetic model combined with risk scores contour was developed for indoor air quality (IAQ) assess-
Fuzzy synthetic model ment and management of office building. This research makes up for the shortcomings of previous methods for
Indoor air quality (IAQ) IAQ assessment, describing a modeling study that estimates baseline health impacts associated with physical
Risk assessment comfort and biological impacts with risk scores contour for indoor air quality. In details, this model is used to
Management
establish a set of chemicals, physical and biological air pollution factors related to evaluation criteria, which can
comprehensively evaluate the impact of various co-existing pollutants (such as formaldehyde and TVOC) on the
indoor environment. The practicability and performance of the method are tested by taking the indoor air
quality of a standard office building in Shanghai as an example. The results indicate that Room 1013 shows the
poorest score in terms of pollution impact and comfort level. The results show that fuzzy comprehensive eva-
luation can solve the problem of ambiguity, inconsistency, and lack of discrimination of air pollutants in
buildings. This approach also provides flexibility and technical details for indoor air quality management. This
method helps to monitor air pollutants more effectively and apply to building design to ensure acceptable indoor
air quality.

1. Introduction studies on indoor pollutant exposure. Kulmala's model focuses on in-

Acceptable indoor air quality (IAQ) guarantees the health of
building occupants and contributes to their comfort and well-being,
since on average, people spend more than 70% of their time in homes,
offices and other indoor environments (Haghighat, Allard, Megri,
Blondeau, & Shimotakahhura, 1999; Backman & Haghighat, 1999;
Zhong, Lee, & Haghighat, 2017; Zhong, Su, & Batterman, 2017). Poor
indoor air quality can lead to discomfort, unfitness, workplace ab-
senteeism, and low productivity. In the past few decades, there are lots
of different methods for IAQ assessment of sick building syndrome due
to building airtight, reduced ventilation rate, chemically formulated
personal care products, pesticides and other household products, etc.
(Haghighat et al., 1999; Backman & Haghighat, 1999; Zhong, Lee et al.,
2017, 2017b). However, most earlier studies considered only one aspect
of indoor air quality; they did not consider both physical and chemical
objectives and their overall evaluation. For example, Kulmala, Asmi,
and Pirjola (1999) and Zhong, Lee et al. (2017), (2017b) developed
models to assess these air exposures, but these models were limited to
door physical targets, while Zhong's model focuses on indoor chemical
targets. However, indoor air quality is a complex problem, which de-
pends on many physical, chemical and other factors (Haghighat &
Donnini, 1999; Yousef et al., 2016). Seaman (2000) and Mesa-Frias,
Chalabi, and Foss (2014) show that a good air quality assessment
method is helpful to solve the problem of uncertainty and variability of
pollutant levels. These methods usually need to be validated with data
from actual case studies. In evaluating air quality, the levels of pollu-
tants in the air should be checked before determining whether these
levels are acceptable to human health. In addition, studies on indoor air
quality variables often lack a clear distinction between standard
boundaries (Mesa-Frias et al., 2014; Cooper et al. (1996); Pelliccioni &
Tirabassi, 2005). The limitation of these procedures is that they do not
necessarily reflect multi-factorial conditions in a reasonable manner.
Heinzerling, Schiavon, Webster, and Ed (2013) noted that the evalua-
tion of air pollutants in a building must consider their physical, che-
mical and biological characteristics simultaneously; indoor air quality
risk assessment model should conduct comprehensive assessment tests

⁎
Corresponding author at: Yangtze Normal University, No.16, Li du Juxian Avenue, Fuling District, Chongqing, China.
E-mail address: jennyyuan33@yahoo.com (J. Yuan).
URL: http://20180014@yznu.cn (J. Yuan).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101654
Received 16 February 2019; Received in revised form 24 May 2019; Accepted 10 June 2019
Available online 24 June 2019
2210-6707/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
J. Yuan, et al.
of various attributes according to actual cases. Therefore, it is urgent to
establish a procedure to assess comprehensively the exposure of
building users to indoor pollution and propose techniques to eliminate
or reduce indoor pollution to an acceptable level (Chiang and Lai, 2002;
Hua Du, 2013).
IAQ Risk assessment also helps set priorities for the regulation of the
very large numbers of chemicals that are of potential concern and helps
direct limited social and governmental resources against the most sig-
nificant health risks (Merabtine, Maalouf, Hawila, Martaj, & Polidori,
2018). It is also reported that most of the current research on control-
ling construction activities focuses on controlling the emission of pol-
lutants (Guleda, Ibrahim, and Halil (2004), Haghighat, Donnini, and
D’Addario (1992), Jold (2000), Prior (1993); Ahn & Lee, 2013). Risk
management decisions concerning a specific risk are based on one hand
on risk characterization and the other hand, on the process that gen-
erates and evaluates the policy options to reduce the risk. Risk assess-
ment and risk management in buildings are intimately linked together
and should feed to each other. So, from managing construction activ-
ities side, a very detailed IAQ risk assessment is needed in order to
generate rational management alternatives. Furthermore, based on the
former IAQ assessment, the research has become more dependent on
formal, quantitative comprehensive risk assessment because of in-
creasing attention to the prevention of human health damage and some
comfort factors. Intake of chemical air pollutants in residences re-
presents an important and substantial health hazard. Health score plus
the comfort score both serve important and different purposes in risk
assessment (Walter and Dabberdt (2000); Merabtine et al., 2018). The
health indicators of indoor air pollutants should be taken as the focus
rather than the evaluation of thermal comfort (Al horr et al., 2016).
In summary, this paper describes the development of a compre-
hensive indoor air quality assessment approach, combing chemical,
physical and biological air quality objectives. The main advantage of
this research can reveal the uncertainty and potential interactions
among various pollution factors using fuzzy sets and fuzzy member
functions for integrated health and comfort risk assessment. The de-
veloped IAQ assessment approach is examined with a case study of
Shanghai building.
2. Methodology
2.1. Risk assessment method
The assessment approach consisted of the risk model, the target-
choice module, the pollutant index, and the improvement decision
analysis (Fig. 1). It included an indoor air standards database, fuzzy
Fig. 1. Schematic of IAQ Integrated assessment systems.
2
Sustainable Cities and Society 50 (2019) 101654
relation functions, clustering vectors, and weights. Using the model,
one can evaluate indoor pollutants’ concentration and exposure rules at
specific times based on a fuzzy synthetic method. A key component of
the assessment system was choosing the building’s pollutant index and
its standards. Therefore, the system took these different issues into
account and integrated them into an overall approach.
2.2. Identification of targets parameters
Three types of factors (chemical, physical, and biological) affecting
IAQ were considered. Compulsive and optional chemical air quality
targets (AQTs) were established. Compulsive targets were set for am-
monia, formaldehyde, benzene, radon, and TVOC, while optional in-
dexes were available for ozone, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ni-
trogen dioxide, and particulate matter (< 10 μm). Secondly, physical
indexes of temperature, relative humidity, and air velocity were set.
Lastly, a biological index of microbial loads was implemented.
2.3. Fuzzy synthetic model – fuzzification
2.3.1. Step 1 – development of parameters and their standard membership
function
There are many uncertainty factors in IAQ assessments. A fuzzy
synthetic model approach is ideal for solving those uncertainty ques-
tions. The concept of the fuzzy set was introduced by Zadeh to interpret
the uncertainties of real situations; such a method can be adapted to
evaluate air pollutant components according to predetermined weights
and thus reduce/eliminate their fuzziness (Fisher, 2003; Zadeh, 1965).
Accordingly, the fuzzy synthetic model approach was used to deal with
uncertainty in the context of IAQ assessments. A brief description of the
fuzzy synthetic method follows.
Supposing n is the number of the data sequences measured for in-
door air evaluation and m is the reference number of each datum
measured in the sequence, the data sequences for the whole database
may be described in terms of n and m. A fuzzy number is defined as a
fuzzy subset of a set of real numbers, R, which is convex and normal
(Dubois & Pradc, 1980). The fuzzy synthetic equation presents the fuzzy
relation between two sets of membership values (Pedrycz, Ekel, &
Parreiras, 2011):
r ⋯ r ln
⎡ 11 ⎤
Rm × n = ⎢ ⋮ ⋮ ⎥ = (rij)
⎣ rm1 ⋯ rmn ⎦ (1)
The compulsive and optional pollutants chosen as a representative
set from which to evaluate IAQ are each assigned a value of m.
J. Yuan, et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 50 (2019) 101654

Normalized membership for the above data sequence should be done. sequences and the reference sequence is.
According to the same mathematical method, the standards’ data
sequences are obtained as Sih (Eq. (2)), h = 1, 2 …c; i = 1, 2 …n; c is 2.4. Fuzzy synthetic model – defuzzification
the number of the standard level. Similarly, the sequences need to be
normalized as well as Eq. (1). After the fuzzification, the parameters are classed according to the
s ⋯ s1n maximum value of Wih, which gives the IAQ class for the study area.
⎡ 11 ⎤
Sn × c = ⎢ ⋮ ⋮ ⎥ = (s ih) Class = max (Wih) (8)
s
⎣ c1 ⋯ scn ⎦ (2)
The larger the value of Wih relative to a referernce value, the worse
Thus, first, membership functions of the target parameters are de- is the IAQ. Also, Defuzzification part also includes the score part. To
termined; obtain an evaluation result, Lee et al. gave overall scores based on the
scoring risk assessment standards for each pollutant assessment (Lee,
2.3.2. Step 2 – development of grade membership function Chau, Yik, Burnett, & Tse, 2002). These standards applied to assess-
As pollutant levels are expressed in terms of several different units, ments were determined after considering the level of technical and
their purely numerical values can differ by several orders of magnitude. social standards at the time of assessment. Scoring occurred in two
If used directly, such differences would lead to an unequal contribution categories: (i) health, where 12 chemical and biological indexes or in-
of different pollutants. Therefore, a scaling calculation must be done to dicators were assigned to target compounds, and (ii) comfort, with
remove the effect of dimension. Such scaling can occur over the para- indicators for indoor temperature in various seasons, relative humidity,
meter's range of values or relative to a given standard. The scaling of and air velocity. As health risks under the health (vs. comfort) category
the data sequence is given as (Faisal & Rehan, 2005): were high, the health category was more important than the comfort
category. Two evaluative scores were used: a basic health score: 0–100
Uhj = μhj × Weight (k ), (j = 0, 1…m ; k = 1, 2…n) (3) and a comfort score: 0–50, and a total score of 0-150. The final score
and, can be expressed as (9):
Wih
⎧ 0 ≤ μhj ≤ 1 Final Score = × 100
⎪ c ∑ Wih (9)
⎨ ∑ uhj = 1
⎪ h= 1 At last Fuzzy risk was assessed on the base of the score.
⎩ (4)

where μhj is the grade of membership of r in R that maps r to the 3. Model application
membership space [0,1], h ranges from 1 to c, c is the number of the
standard level. Weight (k) is the weight of a given pollutant k (Zadeh, The system developed in this study was applied to a real case study,
1973; Zimmermann, 2001). Fuzzy synthetic evaluation requires in- which was implemented to assess the severity and impact of IAQ in a
formation on the relative importance of parameters. The relative im- standard office building in Shanghai, China, and offer possible treat-
portance is established by a set of preference weights, which can be ments. Quantities of major pollutants emitted from the building were
normalized to a sum of 1. In the case of n attributes, a set of weights can estimated according to the following methods. It includes five stages of
be written as: integrated risk assessment: (1) quantification of hazard parameters
n (chemical, physical and biological); (2) Fuzzification: fuzzy health risk
∑ Weight (k ) = 1 levels using fuzzy sets; fuzzy membership functions; construction of
k=1 (5) fuzzy set modeling (3) Defuzzification: calculation of relative im-
The membership value of x in this set can be denoted as (Kaufmann portance (i.e. weighting coefficient Wih for each pollution factor); and
& Gupta, 1985): assessment of integrated health risk based on the modeling. A detailed
introduction of the system and stages of integrated risk assessment are
⎧ 0, if x < a and x > d listed in this case study.
⎪x − a if a ≤ x ≤ b
⎪b − a
μhj (x ) = 3.1. Overview of the case study
⎨d − x if c ≤ x ≤ d
⎪d − c
⎪ 3.1.1. Site characterization
⎩1, if b ≤ x ≤ c (6) Located in Shanghai, China, the office building under study was
constructed in 1997, and each floor has an area of 1050 m2. The main
where [a, d ] is the fuzzy interval imposed by fuzzy subset R.
pollutant sources were office equipment (copy machine, computers,
scanners, etc.) and office workers. The 10th floor (Fig. 2) was used as
2.3.3. Step 3 – analytic hierarchy process (AHP)
the study site, and its characteristic data served as input into the
Saaty (1988) proposed an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to es-
building materials and construction properties database. A typical of-
timate the relative importance of each attribute using pair-wise com-
fice building with 13 rooms on the 10th floor is chosen for the case study
parisons; Faisal and Rehan have used this technique for calculating the
location, where 8 major air pollutants were monitored for three
weights for different attributes in IAQ decision-making systems (Faisal
months, including TVOC, HCHO, and microbes et al.
& Rehan, 2005). The details are to use the membership functions and
After the basic characterization of the building under study, IAQ
standards, a fuzzy relationship matrix is generated, and air quality
was measured for representative rooms at locations given in Fig. 2. The
codes or values are given to a fuzzy operator. The comprehensive fuzzy
monitoring period was from March 22, 2012, to June 6, 2012, using
assessment result can then be obtained from Wih (Eq. (7)):
half of 8-h mean survey methods (US EPA (U.S. Environmental
m
Protection Agency), 2007).
wih = ∑ Uhj × Sih
j=1 (7)
3.1.2. Measurement tools
Wih reflects a strong or weak relationship between the measured result At first, it is important to find an accurate, easy-to-use, and in-
and the reference sequence. All Wih values may be arranged numeri- expensive measurement equipment in IAQ data survey and its perfor-
cally to illustrate how close the correspondence between the measured mance evaluation. Instruments used in this case study included an

3
J. Yuan, et al.
Fig. 2. Site characterization map of the office building's tenth floor, Shanghai, China, 2012.
Indoor air VOC analyzer, PGM-7240 K (ppb RAE) (RAE Systems Inc.,
USA, 2012) to measure the concentration of TVOC; a Formaldemeter
(PPM-400, England) to measure indoor formaldehyde; and a JWL
Microbial sampler and analyzer (Andersen-type microbial sampler,
China) to sample and analyze indoor air microbial concentrations. All
instruments were calibrated according to standard procedures (US EPA
(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), 2007). For example, indoor
air VOC analysis using ppb RAE gave almost the same analysis as GC/
MS (HP 6890/5973) results for the same sampling locations. All these
data are processed as the input to the IAQ integrated model. The annual
mean concentrations of these 8 criteria pollutants (i.e., TVOC, HCHO,
and microbes) at each room are predicted for 2012. According to the air
quality of the different level membership, it is determined indoor air
quality level by using the maximum membership grade principle (Eqs.
(6), (10), (11)).
3.1.3. Simulation tool
To operate the assessment system, a Microsoft Delphi-based IAQ
simulation package was developed (Fig. 3), which includes the com-
prehensive assessment of environmental impacts, and a database of
environmental conditions, building materials, and construction prop-
erties (Yuan, Wang, Han, & Qi, 2004). The tool was designed for use in
assessing buildings of any type or size. Assessments should be carried
out at the basic design stage, the design development stage, and the
Fig. 3. The Microsoft Delphi-based IAQ simulation tool of IAQ assessment.
4
Sustainable Cities and Society 50 (2019) 101654
construction completion stage. The comprehensive IAQ assessment tool
is to be used in buildings to analyze whether a building has an accep-
table air quality or not (Fig. 4).
In building's IAQ assessment, the building’s location, data regarding
a room's environmental conditions, basic building characteristics (age,
scale, orientation, construction materials, numbers of rooms or offices,
ventilation systems and their maintenance (Feng, Long, & Mo, 2016),
hygienic facilities, heating and cooling systems, and other environ-
mental conditions outside the building) are considered. If the assess-
ment results do not fall within standards, then, additional improvement
decisions are made, further measurements are conducted, and results
are re-assessed until they are acceptable.
3.2. Application of the model
3.2.1. Parameter membership functions
Table 1 shows the measured pollutant concentrations, R (m = 13,
n = 6). First parameters listed in Table 1 were normalized to a value
between 0 and 1. Then the impact of these pollutants on air quality
could be predicted and whether risk levels for human health were
within acceptable limits could be evaluated using the Fuzzy synthetic
evaluation.
J. Yuan, et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 50 (2019) 101654

Fig. 4. The practicability and performance process of IAQ assessment.

3.2.2. Standard membership function of the study case ⎧ 1 r ∈ [0, 0.08]

Risk assessment standards were used to group pollutant data into ⎪ μ11 (r )= (0.1 − r )/0.02 r ∈ [0.08, 0.1]
categories, depending on the type of effect they have on human health. ⎪
⎪ 0 r ∈ [0.1, + ∞ ]
In this case, the guidelines for indoor environmental pollution control ⎪ (r − 0.08)/0.02 r ∈ [0.08, 0.1]
of the Ministry of Construction and the China State Quality Supervision ⎪
HCHO μ 21 (r )= (0.12 − r )/0.02 r ∈ [0.1, 0.12]
Inspection Quarantine Administration (SQSIQA) were implemented ⎨
⎪ 0 r ∈ [0.12, + ∞ ]
(SQSIQA, 2001). Under these guidelines, chemical pollutants such as
⎪ 0 r ∈ [0, 0.1]
CO, CO2, O3, PM10, and microorganisms must all be within standard ⎪
GB/T18883, as should physical pollutants such as temperature, relative ⎪ (r − 0.1)/0.02 r ∈ [0.1, 0.12]
⎪ μ (r )= 1 r ∈ [0.12, + ∞ ]
humidity, and air velocity (China EPA, 2002). When using IAQ as- ⎩ 31 (10)
sessment to design green buildings, about fifteen chemical, physical,
and biological pollutants should be considered (Table 2). 1 r ∈ [0, 0.2]
⎧
In order to obtain the standards' independent membership func- ⎪ μ12 (r )= (0.5 − r )/0.3 r ∈ [0.2, 0.5]
tions, S, using the fuzzy synthetic model, the assessment standards for ⎪
⎪ 0 r ∈ [0.5, + ∞ ]
the eight pollutants (Table 2) was normalized to a value between 0 and ⎪ (r − 0.2)/0.3 r ∈ [0.2, 0.5]
1. Therefore, a transformation was conducted to relate measured pol- ⎪
TVOC μ 22 (r )= (0.6 − r )/0.1 r ∈ [0.5, 0.6]
lutants’ concentrations to the corresponding regulated values. ⎨
(Table 3). ⎪ 0 r ∈ [0.6, + ∞ ]
⎪ 0 r ∈ [0, 0.5]
⎪
⎪ (r − 0.5)/0.1 r ∈ [0.5, 0.6]
3.2.3. Grade membership function of the study case ⎪ μ (r )= 1 r ∈ [0.6, + ∞ ]
⎩ 32 (11)
Independent membership functions such as Uj (k) could then be
extracted. The value of the fuzzy membership function of each factor Weight will be decided on the base of the US-EPA and WHO data
related to the three assessment levels could then be calculated (taking inventory. An inventory of the dose-response for acute and chronic
HCHO and TVOC as an example): inhalation exposure to different pollutants was drawn from the US-EPA
and WHO databases (USEPA, 2000; WHO, 1983, 2010;). Five aspects of
the exposure's potential chronic effects and carcinogenicity were con-
sidered: (i) when toxic effect occurred (seasonal), (ii) the time (diurnal)
the toxic exposure occurred; (iii) conditions of recovery from the toxic
exposure, (iv) the pollutant's carcinogenicity index, and (v) potential

Table 1
Concentration of pollutants over a long-term monitoring for chosen rooms.
Room HCHO TVOC Microbe PM10 CO2 CO Temperature (℃) RH (%)
(ppm) (ppb) (N m−3) (CPM) (ppm) (ppm)

1001 0.07 70 143 5 440 0 20.5 63.40

1002 0.07 60 144 5 540 0 20.5 60.70
1003 0.12 174 132 10 580 0 21 60.20
1004 0.07 96 176 7 430 0 20.5 60.70
1005 0.11 122 112 6 425 0 20.2 62.30
1007 0.1 420 176 8 460 0 21 60.20
1010 0.06 210 160 7 510 0 22.5 61.60
1011 0.06 210 120 4 470 0 23 65.60
1012 0.08 400 200 4 470 0 23.5 69.40
1013 0.16 528 208 13 440 0 20 63.00
1014 0.03 130 144 6 430 0 19.5 66.40
1015 0.03 109 104 4 420 0 19 69.90
1018 0.04 110 144 5 430 0 20 63.00

5
J. Yuan, et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 50 (2019) 101654

Table 2
Risk assessment standards for indoor air pollutants.
Indicators First level Second level Third level Indicator First level Second level Third level

−3 −3
Chemical CO (mg m ) 5 8 10 Radon (Bq m ) 100 200 400
Index CO2 (ppm) 800 1000 1200 TVOC (mg m−3) 0.2 0.5 0.6
SO2 (mg m−3) 0.1 0.125 0.5 O3 (mg m−3) 0.05 0.12 0.16
NO2 (mg m−3) 0.1 0.15 0.24 NH3 (mg m−3) 0.2 0.2 0.5
HCHO (mg m−3) 0.08 0.1 0.12 C6H6 (mg m−3) 0.09 0.09 0.11
PM10 (mg m−3) 0.02 0.15 0.18 – – – –
Biological index Microbe (CFU m−3) 500 1000 2500 – – – –
Physical index Temperature (°C) 20 26 28 – – – –
RH (%) 30–40 40–50 50–70 Air velocity (m s−1) 0.15–0.2 < 0.2 < 0.3

Table 3 Table 5
Normalizations of IAQ standards. Assigned weights for indoor air pollutants.
Pollutants First standard’s Second standard’s Third standard’s Index Weight
classification classification classification
HCHO 0.29
HCHO 0.267 0.333 0.400 TVOC 0.29
TVOC 0.154 0.385 0.462 Microbe 0.03
Microbe 0.125 0.250 0.625 PM10 0.07
PM10 0.057 0.429 0.514 CO2 0.02
CO2 0.267 0.333 0.400 CO 0.29
CO 0.192 0.308 0.500

Table 6
chronic effects (USEPA, 2000). In order to easily express these five Scales of score values using in the model.
exposure aspects’ weights on health, Mosqueron et al. represented
Health level Comfort level Healthy level Unhealthy level
combined carcinogenic and potential chronic effects with scores of
between 2 and 4 for more than 1000 samples from the French national Health Score 81–100 61–80 0–60
IAQ survey (Mosqueron, Nedellec, & Kirchner, 2003):

Fi = ∑A × B × C × D × E (12) Table 7
Levels of indoor air enthalpy and comfort (P. Ole Fanger, 2001).
where Fi is the single health impact score and:
Enthalpy(kJ kg−1) 34.5 44.5 59.5 70.5
Fi
WTi =
∑ Fn (13) Dissatisfaction(％) 10 20 40 60
Comfort Score 100 80 60 40
where WTi is the total weight of a given pollutant (Table 4), and Fn is
the sum of the Fi. The weighted scores reflect how toxic the pollutants
are to humans. Four chemicals have particularly high scores: for- 60, it meant some health risk was incurred, whereas below 60 no ap-
maldehyde, CO, TVOC, and benzene (Table 4). The weighted scores preciable health risk existed.
were used for the pollutants parameters were shown in Table 5. When evaluating indicators, consideration of the occupant's thermal
comfort, in terms of feasibility and convenience was of lesser weight. It
3.2.4. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and risk results of the study case was relatively convenient to use the relationship between dissatisfac-
Tables 6 and 7 show the relationship between the evaluated score tion and enthalpy developed by Fanger, as given in Table 7 (Ole Fanger,
and the pollution level. A set of reference pollutant concentrations was 2001). To get a balance between scientific assessments and practic-
used as benchmarks for determining scores of 60, 80, and 100, which in ability, we suggest that all health indicators should be taken into con-
turn served to define a three-interval scale (Chiang & Lai, 2002). A sideration before thermal comfort indicators.
score of 60 represented widely adopted standards for human health, Using Eqs. (7)–(9), the final score, Wih, was computed for all sample
recommended values, and building codes recommendations. The scores rooms, the results are shown in Table 8. Furthermore, the data in
corresponded to risks to the occupants’ health. When a score exceeded Table 8 were used to do the fuzzy risk. The higher value of a risk score

Table 4
Ranking and published weights based on toxicity of indoor air pollutants.
Number Index A B C D E Fi Wi

A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 C1 C2 D1 D2 D3 E1 E2

1 CO 2 3 4 3 3 4 3 2592 0.21
2 CO2 2 3 2 2 4 2 192 0.01556
3 NH3 2 3 2 2 4 2 192 0.01556
4 O3 2 3 4 3 3 3 3 1944 0.158
5 HCHO 2 3 4 3 3 4 3 2592 0.21
6 PM10 3 4 3 3 3 2 648 0.0525
7 TVOC 2 3 4 3 3 4 3 2592 0.21
8 Rn 3 4 3 3 4 3 2592 0.21
9 Microbe 2 3 3 2 4 2 288 0.0233

Note: A, B, C, D, E is carcinogen index.

6
J. Yuan, et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 50 (2019) 101654

Table 8 3.3. Case study discussion

Modeling results over a long-term monitoring for chosen rooms.
Sample site Health score Comfort score In this case study, we chose 13 rooms on a single floor of a typical
office building where 8 major air pollutants were monitored, including
1001 90 50 TVOC, HCHO, and microbes. As an initial step, all inputs were para-
1002 90 50
meterized (Eqs. (6), (10), (11)) using weights and risk standards
1003 89 50
1004 90 50
(Table 5). Fuzzy input parameters were used in Eqs. (7)–(9) to obtain
1005 88 50 the “final score”. In putting them into a fuzzy synthetic evaluation
1007 86 50 model, their impact levels were expressed through scores. According to
1010 88 50 the modeling results, Room 1013 showed the lowest (poorest) score in
1011 88 50
terms of pollution impact and comfort level. Although the above con-
1012 85 50
1013 48 0 cept has been widely applied to risk and uncertainty analysis, the ma-
1014 90 50 jority was based on linear fuzzy membership function, in which fuzzy
1015 92 50 mathematics (i.e., fuzzy relation analysis) were implemented (e.g., Eq.
1018 90 50
(4)) to yield the results (Fisher, 2003).
In this case study, the fuzzy pollutants’ levels would give the users
the maximum and minimum of pollutant levels. The fuzzy output could
refers to a high priority for the location to be monitored. Based on a
also be defuzzified using the scoring output. Finally, the weighting in-
quantitative treatment of the data from the matrices, it could predict
dexes used in this study (Table 4) were adapted from Beliakov et al.
the distribution of risk to show the rank order of hazards. The model is
(Beliakov, Pradera, & Calvo, 2007), whose weights were selected in
relatively simple because it accepts data at the risk level from a wide
consideration of the study area and system (Beliakov et al., 2007). To
range of sources and having a wide range of precision and certainty.
demonstrate that the IAQ evaluation tool can provide reliable results,
Fig. 5 depicts the distribution of risk score over the area under study.
the correlations between the modeling contour results and the mon-
Table 8 indicates that one of the assessment results (Room 1013)
itored values are analyzed with R2 values, which are over 0.9. Further
does not meet the standards. This might have been because the room
site-specific field studies will help determine the weights used for IAQ
1013 was a newly decorated room, and consequently, many of the
risk assessments.
decorating materials were new (such as polyvinyl chloride floor cov-
erings), and they were off-gassing a wide range of chemical substances
(Yeganeh, Haghighat, Gunnarsen, Afshari, & Knudsen, 2006). From 4. Discussion
Fig. 4, the highest risk score was obtained at the location of Room 1013.
The second important location is near the rooms 1001-1004. The study This case study shows that the sensitivity of decision analysis is
shows that it will easily decide the monitoring regions using this fuzzy significantly improved by using a fuzzy evaluation system sorted by
risk assessment. hazard and comfort based on quantitative processing of data rather
than simple boundary values. There is no clear boundary between dif-
ferent air pollution risk levels, so the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation
model with score outline has fuzzy meaning to the health risk level. In
addition, the score risk contour profile can provide a spatial

Fig. 5. Contour results for IAQ risk scores in the office building's tenth floor, Shanghai, China, 2012.

7
J. Yuan, et al.
concentration distribution of air pollutants for health risk assessment.
This newly developed IAQ assessment will clarify the effectiveness of
the new methodology for assessing the risk of indoor air pollutants in
the workplace. With this approach, environmental engineers can con-
trol and improve the indoor air quality of buildings through various
stages of planning, design, and construction, such as management of
indoor air filtration system or ventilation system (Feng et al., 2016,
2017; Feng and Long, 2016; Feng, Pan, Wang, & Long, 2018).
5. Conclusions
In this paper, an evaluation system based on the fuzzy synthetic
model is proposed, and its application is verified by a case study. The
results show that the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is an
effective air quality evaluation method. The use of membership func-
tions and predetermined weights increases the sensitivity of the
method. Applying the evaluation system to the indoor environment can
produce indoor air quality evaluation results. The assessment system
aims to quickly check the air quality level of buildings. Taking the
standard buildings in Shanghai as an example, the relationship between
the developed comprehensive health risk quantification system and the
three risk assessment levels is expounded. The results show that the
developed evaluation system can reveal the potential interaction be-
tween various pollution factors, and the uncertainty of the compre-
hensive impact is quantified by using the fuzzy synthetic model in
combination with the indoor environmental risk scoring contour.
During the initial design, detailed design, and project implementation
phases, the assessment and its tools are comprehensive and user-
friendly for all users. It can also choose to fully evaluate a building
before, during, or after construction. Although this assessment system
and its tools are still in their infancy and have made slow progress in
reaching the mass market, it has become an increasingly important tool
in the field of comprehensive indoor air quality assessment. In addition,
this method is helpful to evaluate the main influencing factors of indoor
air pollutants and their effects on indoor environment comfort and
human health and to analyze the effectiveness of pollutant emission
control, control and improvement measures. Moreover, this method
also provides a feasible and effective method for the surface water
environment, groundwater environment, and other pollution factors
and more complex parameters of a larger range of outdoor environ-
ment.
Acknowledgment
This study was partially supported by a Discovery Research Grant
from Yangtze Normal University.
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