Indoor and Outdoor Particulate Matter: The Current and Future in Monitoring, Assessment, and Management

Air pollution is one of the most severe threats to society globally due to the rapid expansion of urbanization and industrialization. Particularly, particulate matter (PM) pollution was recently designated as a social disaster by the Korean government because of increases in public concerns and the accumulation of scientific evidence that links high levels of PM2.5 (PM smaller than 2.5 mu m in diameter) to a long list of adverse health effects. Atmospheric PM concentrations can also affect the indoor PM levels to which people are exposed most of the time. Thus, understanding the characteristics of indoor and ambient PM pollution based on measurements, model simulations, risk assessments, and management technologies is inevitable in establishing effective policies to mitigate social, economic, and health costs incurred by PM pollution. In this special issue, we introduce several interesting studies concerning indoor and outdoor PM from the perspective of monitoring, assessment, and management being conducted by i-SEED (School of Integrated Science for Sustainable Earth & Environmental Disaster at Pukyong National University) and SPMC (School Particulate Matter Center for Energy and Environmental Harmonization). We expect that this special issue can improve our understanding of the current and future of indoor and outdoor PM pollution, integrating the results from interdisciplinary research groups from various academic fields.