ABSTRACT
Multiple clusters of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Hong Kong have involved vertical transmissions in residential buildings, wherein the flats of confirmed cases were often vertically aligned. Data on the buildings and cases associated with 19 such clusters were retrieved and compared with the corresponding data on the entirety of Hong Kong. Vertical transmissions usually occurred in old high-rise buildings with small flat areas and low estate prices during winter. In addition, infection occurred frequently among the elderly and among upstairs neighbours of index cases. Virus-laden aerosols may have been transmitted between flats mostly via shared drainpipes, and the vertical distribution of the confirmed cases in a building varied by its drainage system design. For buildings with their entire drainpipes installed indoors, both the upstairs and downstairs neighbours of the index case flats could be infected. By comparison, buildings with their drainage stacks installed outdoors had lower infection risks and demonstrated a clearer pattern of vertical transmission: most infected cases resided upstairs from the index case flats, indicating that the virus spread could be dominated by the stack effect. This study provides valuable data and analysis for developing epidemic control strategies for residential buildings. Electronic Supplementary Material ESM: The Appendix is available in the online version of this article at 10.1007/s12273-022-0929-5.
ABSTRACT
The growing urban population has accelerated the development of high-density cities and high-rise buildings. Meanwhile, cooling energy use is expected to increase, especially in (sub)tropical areas, due to climate change, the rising ownership rate of air-conditioners, and working-from-home during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, reducing cooling energy use in high-rise residential buildings is essential for achieving net zero by 2050. However, limited empirical studies are available on cooling energy use of high-rise residential buildings. This study aims to investigate cooling-related energy uses and adaptive behaviors in high-rise residential buildings, particularly, the vertical variation of energy uses and relevant factors. A high-rise student residence in Hong Kong was examined. Four-year electricity meter records in 716 rooms were analyzed to check the statistical significance of the vertical cooling electricity use difference. Long-term in-situ monitoring was applied to obtain environmental and behavioral data with twenty-one residents. A validated building energy model was used to explain the vertical cooling energy use difference. Results show that the annual cooling electricity use declined averagely by 0.8% per floor, which could be mainly explained by the environmental and behavioral factors that changed with building height. The findings will facilitate decision-making on energy efficiency in high-rise residential buildings.
ABSTRACT
SARS-CoV-2 traveling through ventilating pipes in high-rise buildings present an urgent concern to address. This paper describes an IoT monitoring system designed to disinfect the air traveling through the pipes. Site tests demonstrate that the system provides a cost-effective solution for pathogen inactivation in ventilating pipes of high-rise buildings, and that it can play a positive role in mitigating the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in built environments. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 outbreaks in high-rise buildings suggested the transmission route of fecal-aerosol-inhalation due to the involvement of viral aerosols in sewer stacks. The vertical transmission is likely due to the failure of water traps that allow viral aerosols to spread through sewer stacks. This process can be further facilitated by the chimney effect in vent stack, extract ventilation in bathrooms, or wind-induced air pressure fluctuations. To eliminate the risk of such vertical disease spread, the installation of protective devices is highly encouraged in high-rise buildings. Although the mechanism of vertical pathogen spread through drainage pipeline has been illustrated by tracer gas or microbial experiments and numerical modeling, more research is needed to support the update of regulatory and design standards for sewerage facilities.
ABSTRACT
Indonesia is one from many countries that is struck by the COVID-19 virus pandemic. Indonesia still needs to recover from economy crisis caused by the pandemic. Indonesia’s evolvement can be seen from their development in their infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Occupational Safety and Health (OHS) Management System is a crucial part of the contractor organization’s management system that is used to implement and develop OHS policies in all of the existing development project. In this research study, it will discuss about the application of OHS management systems in high-rise building projects during the COVID-19 pandemic. The result from the analysis and calculation in this research are compared with the Minister of Public Works Regulation No. 9/2008 regarding the Management System and Work Safety and the Instruction of the Minister of PUPR No. 2/IN/M/2020 concerning about the Protocol to Prevent the Spread of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the implementation of construction services. In its implementation, the OHS Management System is divided into 3 important parts, namely the Implementation and Operation of OHS Activities, OHS Evaluation/Inspection and OHS Management Review. The implementation of OHS Management System during the COVID-19 pandemic in high-rise building was obtained 77.09% (Good Enough). © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.