Interactions Between Indoor Environmental Quality, Occupant Behaviour, and Building Performance Under a Changing Climate

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is a follow-up to the first Special Issue, entitled “Future-Proofing Buildings for Enhanced Indoor Air Quality and Thermal Comfort: An Opportunity for Resilient Tomorrow” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/atmosphere/special_issues/M0HL7MNE15), published in Atmosphere in 2025.

Indoor environments play a key role in supporting occupants’ thermal comfort, health, satisfaction, and productivity. While reducing energy use and environmental impact remains a priority in the building sector, ensuring a comfortable and healthy indoor environment presents ongoing challenges. These challenges are increasingly intensified by changing patterns in building use, emerging energy technologies, evolving occupant preferences, and the impacts of climate change, highlighting the need for integrated approaches to building design, operation, and evaluation.

Although technological advancements and improved environmental monitoring have significantly enhanced our understanding of the complex and interconnected dynamics of indoor environmental quality (IEQ), occupant behaviour, and building performance, these elements form a highly interdependent system that still requires further investigation. This Special Issue invites original research and methodological contributions that examine how these interrelated factors interact in the context of a changing climate. Our aim is to inform building design, operation, and policy to support energy-efficient indoor environments that promote occupant health, comfort, and resilience. Interdisciplinary studies integrating environmental monitoring, occupant feedback, and/or building simulation are particularly encouraged.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Interdisciplinary research on IEQ in the context of climate change, bridging technical, behavioural, and social sciences;
• Interactions between outdoor air quality, indoor environment, occupant behaviour, and building energy use;
• Indoor air quality (IAQ), thermal comfort, and occupant health in resilient buildings;
• Impact of occupant behaviour on energy performance and indoor environmental conditions;
• Adaptive comfort models and natural/mechanical ventilation strategies for climate-responsive design;
• Behavioural adaptations that support energy savings and occupant wellbeing;
• The integration of environmental monitoring data, energy simulation, and occupant feedback to assess and improve building performance;
• Smart control systems and demand response strategies to optimise comfort and energy efficiency;
• Policy and regulatory implications for occupant-centred building design and operation;
• Multi-dimensional assessments of IEQ, combining thermal comfort, air quality, acoustic, and lighting parameters.

Dr. Sahar Zahiri
Prof. Dr. Hasim Altan
Prof. Dr. Jitka Mohelnikova
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• indoor air quality
• occupant behaviour
• occupant health and wellbeing
• thermal comfort
• thermal resilience and adaptation
• overheating
• natural ventilation
• building performance
• energy efficiency
• net-zero carbon building