Abstract: In order to deal with the odor pollution during the excavation of VOCs-contaminated soils, the establishment of its risk predication model and the evaluation of its potential risk is of great practical significance. In this study, a conceptual model of odor exposure was developed to estimate the emission rate of pollution source, with the processes of soil gas diffusion, VOCs volatilization, and groundwater solute volatilization comprehensively considered. Combined with the Gaussian diffusion model, the diffusion process of pollution sources to the surrounding area was simulated, and then the odor intensity was used as the characterization means to predict the atmospheric concentration of VOCs in the surrounding area and its olfactory effect on human body. The risk of odor diffusion in a remediation plot was predicted during its excavation. The excavation area was 2800 m² and the depth was 3 m. The odorous substances included 9 BTEXs such as benzene, methylbenzene and ethylbenzene. The prediction results showed that when the excavation speed was 150 m³/h, VOCs were rapidly released and diffused to the surrounding residential area at 20 m away. The main VOCs compounds were chlorobenzene, benzene, ethylbenzene, and toluene, and their contents were 6.86, 2.35, 1.56 and 0.85 mg/m³, respectively. The odor characteristics of VOCs were analyzed using odor activity value (OAV) and ln(OAV), which identified as the key odorous substance in the mixture. Therefore, ethylbenzene was chosen to represent the odor characteristics of VOCs. Accordingly, the odor intensity of the residents in the breathing area was 3.09, indicating the surrounding residents could obviously smell the odor during the excavation. Moreover, based on the model sensitivity analysis, the key parameters impacting the odor risk were identified, mainly including the sensitive target distance (x_air), soil pollution concentration (C_s), excavation speed (Q), soil air content (θ_air), and ambient air velocity (U_air). To effectively control the negative effects of the diffusion of odor in soil, from the perspective of reducing odor nuisance to the public, the study proposed several control strategies, such as the optimization of soil remediation technologies, control of regional soil conditions, and consideration of weather effect.