Real-Time Monitoring of Environmental Parameters in Schools to Improve Indoor Resilience Under Extreme Events

Highlights: What are the main findings? The study emphasizes the critical need for real-time IAQ monitoring in educational facilities, especially during extreme weather events. By closely tracking air pollutants, particularly PM2.5, temperature, and humidity, the study reveals that indoor air quality can deteriorate significantly during such events, potentially impacting vulnerable children’s health. The study observed that during sandstorms, indoor PM2.5 levels rose by over 16%, and temperatures increased by more than 5% compared to normal conditions. These findings underline the significant infiltration of outdoor pollutants indoors, even with windows and doors closed, and call for enhanced ventilation and filtration systems in schools. What is the implication of the main finding? This research aligns with the objectives of smart cities by calling for intelligent, real-time IAQ monitoring in schools, especially those in regions susceptible to climate extremes. The study supports policy initiatives focused on implementing centralized ventilation, monitoring systems, and air quality regulations in school environments, enhancing urban resilience to environmental stressors. To mitigate health risks, the study suggests that policy frameworks establish indoor air quality guidelines for educational settings, especially in arid or polluted regions. It also highlights the importance of further research to refine IAQ models and recommends installing low-cost, routinely calibrated sensors for ongoing IAQ assessment, aiming to create safer, healthier indoor environments for children. Climatic changes lead to many extreme weather events throughout the globe. These extreme weather events influence our behavior, exposing us to different environmental conditions, such as poor indoor quality. Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) poses a significant concern in the modern era, as people spend up to 90% of their time indoors. Ventilation influences key IAQ elements such as temperature, relative humidity, and particulate matter (PM). Children, considered a vulnerable group, spend approximately 30% of their time in educational settings, often housed in old structures with poorly maintained ventilation systems. Extreme weather events lead young students to stay indoors, usually behind closed doors and windows, which may lead to exposure to elevated levels of air pollutants. In our research, we aim to demonstrate how real-time monitoring of air pollutants and other environmental parameters under extreme weather is important for regulating the indoor environment. A study was conducted in a school building with limited ventilation located in an arid region near the Red Sea, which frequently suffers from high PM concentrations. In this study, we tracked the indoor environmental conditions and air quality during the entire month of May 2022, including an extreme outdoor weather event of sandstorms. During this month, we continuously monitored four classrooms in an elementary school built in 1967 in Eilat. Our findings indicate that PM2.5 was higher indoors (statistically significant) by more than 16% during the extreme event. Temperature was also elevated indoors (statistically significant) by more than 5%. The parameters’ deviation highlights the need for better indoor weather control and ventilation systems, as well as ongoing monitoring in schools to maintain healthy indoor air quality. This also warrants us as we are approaching an era of climatic instability, including higher occurrence of similar extreme events, which urge us to develop real-time responses in urban areas.