ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 787

International Conference | Bari - Lecce, Italy Session XII MAINTAINING A HEALTHY LIFE INDOORS: AIR QUALITY AND SOURCES OF NOISE IN RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS IN THE UAE Ehab Kamaleh1 & Hasim Altan1 1 Sustainable Design of the Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering & IT, British University in Dubai, UAE, [email protected] / [email protected] Abstract In hot and arid landscapes similar to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), many people spend a lot of their time in controlled climates, i.e. indoor environments, which depend primarily on air conditioning where this may lead to poor indoor environments. Indoor air quality is a major factor in public health, safety, and environmental control, and is considered to be one of the top concerns of global health. Air conditioning can alter one’s environment and result in negative affects toward human health; the circulated air can carry germs, dust and microbes which end up in the air conditioning ducts. In addition, the noise which is produced by the air conditioning unit can affect the level of comfort and quality of life. The paper discusses the factors that can affect the indoor environmental quality of residential buildings in the UAE in particular. This review study brought to realization that there are many factors which can affect healthy indoor environments with good air quality, such as the indoor environment of the building spaces, ventilation, and humidity filtration, all which will be addressed and discussed in great details in this paper. The main focus of this study is to suggest solutions for healthy indoor environments in this region by emphasizing on air quality and noise related with building services for controlled indoor climates and environments that can affect life quality drastically and have diverse effect on people including their wellbeing. Keywords Indoor Air Quality Controlled Environments, Noise, Health and Wellbeing, Hot and Arid Climates, UAE. 785