Comparative Assessment of Occupant Behavior models for early stage occupant centric design decisions

The study explores implementation of occupant behavior(OB) models during Conceptual Design stage of a development project in the building industry. Despite extensive research in this field, there has been a notable gap in the implementation of the research findings into practice. This study seeks to bridge this gap by enhancing deterministic OB modeling to incorporate dynamic occupant behavior. A comparative analysis of schedules, stochastic OB modeling and enhanced deterministic OB modeling methods is conducted to compare the predictive accuracy, complexity and computational demand of each of these models. The focus of the study extends beyond model performance, to facilitate communication of design in the project process. Upon integrating suggestions from previous researchers, the study proposes a framework enabling practitioners to develop design decisions while ensuring the designs are resilient to dynamic occupant behavior. In conclusion, the study suggests the implementation of an enhanced deterministic OB model for Conceptual design decisions followed by the use of the framework developed to make informed, occupant centric design decisions.