An Examination of Indoor Air Quality in Residential Homes Using Fine-Scale Temporal Measurements and Future Climate Model Simulations
Python code archive for the doctoral dissertation research conducted at Washington State University's Laboratory for Atmospheric Research (LAR). The framework uses NIST CONTAM multizone simulations driven by downscaled climate projections and atmospheric chemistry model outputs to evaluate how future climate conditions affect indoor air quality in U.S. residential buildings.
- Multizone IAQ simulations using NIST CONTAM across 19 U.S. cities and five residential building archetypes
- Climate forcing from CMIP5 models under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios, downscaled via MACA
- Outdoor contaminant boundary conditions (PM2.5, O3, HCHO) from WRF-CMAQ
- Present-day baseline meteorology from NOAA Integrated Surface Hourly (ISH) observations
- Simulation outputs written to netCDF for post-processing and analysis
| City | State | Latitude | Longitude | Altitude (m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta | GA | 33.75 | -84.39 | 273 |
| Birmingham | AL | 33.52 | -86.80 | 140 |
| Boston | MA | 42.36 | -71.06 | 43 |
| Buffalo | NY | 42.89 | -78.88 | 183 |
| Chicago | IL | 41.88 | -87.63 | 181 |
| Cincinnati | OH | 39.10 | -84.51 | 147 |
| Corpus Christi | TX | 27.80 | -97.40 | 2 |
| Dallas | TX | 32.78 | -96.80 | 131 |
| Denver | CO | 39.74 | -104.99 | 1647 |
| Los Angeles | CA | 34.05 | -118.24 | 93 |
| Miami | FL | 25.76 | -80.19 | 7 |
| Minneapolis | MN | 44.98 | -93.27 | 264 |
| Nashville | TN | 36.16 | -86.78 | 182 |
| New York | NY | 40.71 | -74.01 | 10 |
| Phoenix | AZ | 33.45 | -112.07 | 331 |
| Seattle | WA | 47.61 | -122.33 | 79 |
| St. Louis | MO | 38.63 | -90.20 | 165 |
| Washington | DC | 38.91 | -77.04 | 63 |
| Worcester | MA | 42.26 | -71.80 | 146 |
Building archetypes are drawn from the NIST Collection of U.S. Housing Stock (Persily et al., 2006).
| Model ID | Description |
|---|---|
| AH-1 | Apartment |
| DH-1 | Detached house, type 1 |
| DH-3 | Detached house, type 3 |
| House-5 | Single-family house |
| MH-1 | Mobile home |
| Scenario | Description |
|---|---|
| Historical baseline | NOAA ISH observed meteorology |
| RCP 4.5 | Intermediate greenhouse gas stabilization pathway |
| RCP 8.5 | High-end emissions pathway |
| Contaminant | Source | Reported Units |
|---|---|---|
| PM2.5 | WRF-CMAQ | µg/m³ |
| Ozone (O3) | WRF-CMAQ | ppb |
| Formaldehyde (HCHO) | WRF-CMAQ | ppb |
py-contam-graduateproject/
├── documentation/
│ ├── contamOnAeolus.md # Notes for running CONTAM on the WSU aeolus HPC cluster
│ ├── SIM_file_format.txt # CONTAM binary .sim file format reference
│ ├── isd-history-IAQ.csv # NOAA ISH station list for project cities
│ ├── isd-history.csv # Full NOAA ISH station inventory
│ ├── ish-format-document.pdf # NOAA ISH data format specification
│ └── ish-qc.pdf # NOAA ISH quality control documentation
│
└── python/
├── contam_input.py # Reads meteorological and contaminant data;
│ # writes CONTAM weather and species input files
├── contam_output.py # Parses binary CONTAM .sim output files;
│ # extracts airflow, node pressures, and concentrations
├── runContam.py # Batch simulation driver across cities,
│ # building types, and climate scenarios
├── iaq_cities.csv # City coordinates, altitude, and time zone lookup
├── vrs.csv # Ventilation rate schedules
│
├── aqs/ # EPA Air Quality System data retrieval tools
├── cmaq/ # WRF-CMAQ contaminant file generation
├── CMIP5/ # CMIP5 model ranking and selection
├── graphics/ # Visualization scripts
├── houses/ # Building-specific CONTAM file generation
│ # and simulation output processing
├── maca/ # MACA climate data processing and
│ # CONTAM weather file generation
└── utilities/ # General-purpose utilities: NOAA ISH ingestion,
# WRF data reading, pressure correction
| Source | Description | Role |
|---|---|---|
| MACA | Multivariate Adaptive Constructed Analogs | Downscaled temperature, humidity, and wind speed for RCP 4.5 and 8.5 |
| WRF-CMAQ | Weather Research and Forecasting + Community Multiscale Air Quality | Outdoor PM2.5, O3, and HCHO boundary conditions |
| NOAA ISH | Integrated Surface Hourly | Observed meteorological data for historical baseline runs |
| CMIP5 | Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 | GCM selection for MACA downscaling |
The code was developed in Python and executed on the Washington State University aeolus HPC cluster. Key packages:
numpy,scipy— numerical computationnetCDF4— reading and writing simulation output filespandas— tabular data handlingmatplotlib— visualization
No environment file is included in this repository. See documentation/contamOnAeolus.md for notes on the HPC setup used during the project.
Framework developed by: Von P. Walden, Washington State University, Laboratory for Atmospheric Research (v.walden@wsu.edu)
Analyses conducted by: Nathan M. Lima, Washington State University (Ph.D., Engineering Science, 2022)
Questions or comments: Open an issue or reach out via GitHub.
This work was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science to Achieve Results (STAR) grant program. Contributions from Brian K. Lamb, Yunha Huangfu, Patrick T. O'Keeffe, William M. Kirk, Stephanie N. Pressley, B. Tommy Jobson, and EPA collaborators Christopher G. Nolte and Tanya L. Spero are gratefully acknowledged.
Simulations were run on the aeolus high-performance computing cluster at Washington State University.
Lima, N. M. (2022). An Examination of Indoor Air Quality in Residential Homes Using Fine-Scale Temporal Measurements and Future Climate Model Simulations [Dissertation, Washington State University]. ProQuest. https://www.proquest.com/openview/975cbdf830bc026b3190b2a201cd17c0/
Lima, N. M., Huangfu, Y., Walden, V. P., Kirk, W. M., Lamb, B. K., Jobson, B. T., Pressley, S. N., O'Keeffe, P. T., Musser, A., Nolte, C. G., Spero, T. L., & Toombs, K. (2018, July 23). Simulations of indoor air quality based on future climate conditions. The 15th Conference of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality.
Lamb, B. K., Huangfu, Y., Lima, N. M., O'Keeffe, P. T., Cook, D. J., Kirk, W. M., Lin, B., Pressley, S. N., Walden, V. P., & Jobson, B. T. (2017, October 5). Integrated measurements and model of indoor air quality. Northwest Regional Modeling Consortium, Richland, WA.
- CONTAM — NIST Multizone Modeling Software
- MACA — Multivariate Adaptive Constructed Analogs
- WRF-CMAQ — Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling System
- NOAA ISH — NOAA Integrated Surface Database
- CMIP5 — Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5
- Persily, A. K., Musser, A., & Leber, D. (2006). A collection of homes to represent the U.S. housing stock (NIST IR 7330). National Institute of Standards and Technology. https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.7330