The Changing Morphology of Indoor Ecosystems in the Twenty-first Century Driven by Technological, Climatic, and Sociodemographic Forces

Abstract

The majority of humans reside in urban regions and spend most of their time in indoor environments such as residential, educational, occupational, transportation, and health-care facilities. Interior settings affect occupants’ health and behavior through their design, and chemical, microbial, and social features. The initial portion of this paper describes ecological psychologists’ conceptions of indoor environments as self-contained and distinctly bounded ecobehavioral systems, with evidence for the behavioral and health effects of homes, workplaces, and other kinds of indoor ecosystems cited. The ensuing sections examine contemporary changes in the structure and functioning of indoor ecosystems propelled by the digitalization of society, global climate change, and sociodemographic shifts toward population aging, income inequality, and anti-immigrant views in many countries. Transdisciplinary action research is needed to understand and manage rapid changes in indoor ecosystems, as evidenced by the increasing permeability of their spatial and temporal boundaries, modifications of their structural features, and shifts in the distribution of certain categories of settings within host communities. Effective collaboration among academic and nonacademic partners spanning diverse fields and multiple environmental scales is likewise essential for developing broad-gauged solutions to enhance the healthfulness and sustainability of indoor ecosystems as they continue to evolve in future years.