The integration model of objective and subjective data of residential indoor environment quality in Northeast China based on structural equation modeling

Currently the indoor environment quality is described or evaluated mainly by the subjective or objective data. However, research increasingly has demonstrated that objective and subjective data both had some weaknesses to characterize the indoor environment quality, and they can compensate for each other's relative weaknesses. Hence, this study aims to develop an integration model to allow indoor subjective and objective data to be combined based on the structural equation modeling approach, using the Northeast China residential indoor environmental survey data. The results indicated that the integration model had a good fit for the survey data, and the model validity was confirmed. Moreover, in contrast to the subjective data (R² = 0.363) and objective data (R² = 0.239), the integrated data (R² = 0.553) improved the explanatory power on the satisfaction with the overall indoor environment. Furthermore, this integration model demonstrated that indoor subjective data assigned more weights to the integrated data than the corresponding objective data. The association strength of thermal environment and indoor air quality (0.43 or 0.47) was the strongest among the interactions of thermal, air quality, acoustic, and lighting environments. Consequently, the main contribution of this paper was that it provided a comprehensive model to accomplish the integration of indoor environmental subjective and objective data, promoting the ability to describe and assess the indoor environment quality.