scholarly journals Monitoring and Assessing the Environmental Noise along a Busy Traffic Corridor of Ahmedabad City, India

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 198-209
Author(s):  
Ketan Lakhtaria ◽  
Sandip Trivedi ◽  
Anurag Kandya

Noise pollution is a growing problem across the world and one which many people may not be aware of the impacts on their health. The environmental noise, and in particular the road traffic noise, remains a major environmental problem affecting the health and well-being of millions of people. With this background, a comprehensive ‘noise pollution assessment study’ was undertaken for a busy traffic corridor of Ahmedabad city of India. The traffic corridor which spans around 22.25 km passes through a mix of different areas like educational, commercials and residential. A two week long field survey was carried out on this corridor during 10-23 May, 2018 at 24 locations spread over the entire corridor. The assessment reveals that the average noise level always exceeded the prescribed guidelines of World Health Organization (WHO) for the daytime noise (75 dB (A) for Industrial area, 65 dB (A) for Commercial area, 55 dB (A) for Residential area and 50 dB (A) for Silence zones), which is quite alarming. For a major portion of the traffic corridor (79.6%), even the minimum noise level was above the permissible average noise level which is a matter of great concern. The highest noise level observed was 86.0 dB (A). Clubbing the ranks of the traffic corridor segments for the noise indicators like LAeq, Lmin, Lmax, L90, L50, L10 and LNP revealed that locations like Akhbarnagar followed by Naranpura were in the nosiest. Looking to implications of the high noise levels on the human health and productivity, it is important to initiate suitable mitigation measures. The present comprehensive study brings forth the spatial and quantitative aspects of noise pollution across the busy corridor of the city which would be of great help to the civic administration in understanding the magnitude of the problem and subsequently initiate suitable mitigative measures.

1970 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-440
Author(s):  
Tayyaba Aftab ◽  
Farzana Bashir ◽  
Tahira Shafiq

A road traffic noise study was conducted in Lahore at 18 busy places of high traffic flow in peak working hours of the day. It has been found that the day time average noise level has crossed the permissible limit of 85dB(A) at 90% busy points in the city. The maximum average noise level recorded in Lahore was 104 dB(A). This high level attributed to vehicular traffic specially auto rickshaw with ineffective silencers (without filters) and frequent use of the pressure horns by buses, wagons and trucks etc. The findings of the survey provide enough baseline data for engineering controls and interim legislation against traffic noise pollution. Key words: Noise pollution, Traffics load , Community health, Lahore city Bangladesh J. Sci. Ind. Res. 42(4), 435-440, 2007


Noise can be defined as an undesirable sound that pollutes the environment. If noise is continuous and exceeds certain levels, negative effects on health can be observed. In recent years, the impact of environmental noise (road traffic noise, railway traffic noise, air traffic noise and industrial noise) on human health has come under increasingly intense scrutiny. Noise can cause a number of negative effects on health that directly or indirectly affect humans. The occurrence of some certain and harmful health effects drives the onset of others and may contribute to the development of various diseases. Health is not only a state of physical well-being, but also mental well-being. Mental health primarily depends on the quality of life, which can be affected by various environmental factors, such as noise. An important aspect of fighting noise is the most effective protection of the population by avoiding sources of noise and reducing it. This can be achieved by introducing new technical solutions and new technologies, including devices that generate less noise. Another important measure is educating the society and influencing the change of individual and collective behavior, which may contribute to reducing the harmful factor, which is noise in human life, and minimize the resulting negative effects on health.


2014 ◽  
Vol 617 ◽  
pp. 110-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ľubica Argalášová ◽  
Jana Jurkovičová ◽  
Ludmila Ševčíková ◽  
Zuzana Štefániková ◽  
Katarína Hirošová ◽  
...  

Environmental (community) noise, particularly road traffic noise, has attracted widespread attention in recent decades as a major environmental health concern. The aim of the study was to determine the impact of environmental noise on psychosocial well-being of young healthy individuals and to follow the time trends of exposure in the period of 10, 15, 20, 25 years. The validated methodology was used to assess noise annoyance, interference with activities and sleep disturbance; the objectification of noise levels was done by direct measurement using sound level analyzer with a module for frequency analysis. The results revealed the sharp increase during the years 1989 and 1999 (the period of political and socio-economic transformation and the changes in traffic management) and the decrease in the year 2013. The findings of our study indicate the need for preventive measures to reduce environmental noise exposure in residential areas and to emphasize the importance of the elaboration of methods for environmental noise exposure risk assessment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 7196
Author(s):  
Dámaris A. Jiménez-Uribe ◽  
Darwin Daniels ◽  
Zoë L. Fleming ◽  
Andrés M. Vélez-Pereira

The objective of this study was to determine the influence of vehicular traffic on the environmental noise levels of the Santa Marta City tourist route on the Colombian coast. An analysis of vehicle types and frequencies at various times of the day over nearly a year helped to track the main sources of environmental noise pollution. Five sampling points were selected, which were distributed over 12 km, with three classified as peripheral urban and two as suburban. The average traffic flow was 966 vehicles/h and was mainly composed of automobiles, with higher values in the peripheral urban area. The noise level was 103.3 dBA, with background and peak levels of 87.2 and 107.3 dBA, respectively. The noise level was higher during the day; however, there were no differences between weekdays and weekends. The results from the analysis of variance showed that the number of vehicles and the noise levels varied greatly according to the time of day and sampling point location. The peak and mean noise levels were correlated with the number of automobiles, buses and heavy vehicles. The mean noise levels were similar at all sample points despite the traffic flow varying, and the background noise was only correlated for automobiles (which varied much more than the heavy vehicles between day and night).


Author(s):  
Nur Nazmi Liyana Mohd Napi ◽  
◽  
Mohd Hafizul Zainal ◽  
Samsuri Abdullah ◽  
Nazri Che Dom ◽  
...  

An undesired or hazardous outdoor sound produced by human activities is referred to as environmental noise. For example, the noise emitted through industrial activities and transportation networks such as road, rail and air traffic. In Malaysia, most of the schools located very close to the roadside and near busy places such as cities, shops, and residential areas. This study aims to analyze the environmental noise in terms of spatial and temporal analysis in two primary schools in Terengganu State. The noise monitoring had conducted in two (2) primary schools with different land use; residential area (Batu Rakit Primary School) and commercial area (Paya Bunga Primary School) on the school and non-school days by using Sound Level Meter (SLM). The spatial mapping had constructed by using SketchUp® 2018 and Surfer® version 11 software. The noise level between both study areas was significantly different based on a p-value of less than 0.05. It also surpassed the Department of Environment (DOE) of Malaysia's permitted limit, with the Equivalent Noise Level (LAeq) in residential areas being greater than in commercial areas due to traffic volume and noise from nearby activities. Lastly, the area near the roadside has higher critical noise pollution compared with the location that furthers from the roadside. In conclusion, this study is useful in creating awareness to the public about the noise pollution effect on primary school students and is also can be used for mitigation measures to have a better place for students to study.


Noise Mapping ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesc Alías ◽  
Rosa Ma Alsina-Pagès ◽  
Ferran Orga ◽  
Joan Claudi Socoró

Abstract Environmental noise is increasing year after year, especially in urban and suburban areas. Besides annoyance, environmental noise also causes harmful health effects on people. The Environmental Noise Directive 2002/49/EC (END) is the main instrument of the European Union to identify and combat noise pollution, followed by the CNOSSOS-EU methodological framework. In compliance with the END legislation, the European Member States are required to publish noise maps and action plans every five years. The emergence of Wireless Acoustic Sensor Networks (WASNs) have changed the paradigm to address the END regulatory requirements, allowing the dynamic ubiquitous measurement of environmental noise pollution. Following the END, the LIFE DYNAMAP project aims to develop a WASN-based low-cost noise mapping system to monitor the acoustic impact of road infrastructures in real time. Those acoustic events unrelated to regular traffic noise should be removed from the equivalent noise level calculations to avoid biasing the noise map generation. This work describes the different approaches developed within the DYNAMAP project to implement an Anomalous Noise Event Detector on the low-cost sensors of the network, considering both synthetic and real-life acoustic data.Moreover, the paper reflects on several open challenges, discussing how to tackle them for the future deployment of WASN-based noise monitoring systems in real-life operating conditions.


Noise Mapping ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-83
Author(s):  
Pervez Alam ◽  
Kafeel Ahmad ◽  
S. S. Afsar ◽  
Nasim Akhtar

AbstractNoise pollution has been rising as a critical issue in recent days particularly for the people living in urban areas. This study has been conducted to find out the effects of traffic induced noise on nearby residential building through 3D noise mapping with and without noise Barriers. Monitoring has been carried out at various densely populated preselected locations of Delhi, India. Thereafter, 3D noise mapping has been done using hourly average noise levels for the locations exposed with maximum noise. The developed 3D noise map shows the variation of noise level along X, Y and Z direction for all selected locations before and after installation of noise barriers. Moreover, the result also shows that exact assessment of noise impact is possible through 3D noise mapping, when a multistory building close to the source of noise is taken into consideration. This paper also elaborates the adequate height, distance and NRC value of noise barrier to reduce the effect of road traffic noise on nearby high rise building. Reduction pattern of noise level can easily be visualized and evaluated by using these maps. This type of study could support decision makers during adaptation of suitable remedial measures.


Author(s):  
Momir Praščević ◽  
Darko Mihajlov ◽  
Dragan Cvetkovic ◽  
Aleksandar Gajicki

Environmental noise level monitoring in Serbia is performed in several cities and it is pursuant to the Law on Environmental Noise Protection and the accompanying regulations. Although these regulations are in accordance with the national standards, the methodology of noise monitoring varies in different cities. The issues which differ include the following: the number of measurement spots, the number of daily, weekly, and monthly measurement intervals, the duration of measurement intervals, measurement parameters and noise indicators used for noise evaluation. Different measurement procedures are the consequence of diverse city configurations, traffic structure, traffic flow, locations of noise-sensitive objects, as well as diverse contribution of noise sources. The road traffic noise level monitoring in the City of Nis has been organized from 1995 until today based on short-term measurements. The values of noise indicators are calculated based on these short-term measurements. The two newly purchased noise monitoring terminals by the Noise and Vibration Laboratory of the Faculty of Occupational Safety in Nis, enabled the long-term noise measurements. The procedure of permanent and semi-permanent road traffic noise measurements at eight locations in the City of Nis has been carried out since January 1, 2014. The results of long-term road traffic noise measurements at the main streets of Niš city are presented in this paper as well as the possibility of their presentation in the sense of the Harmonica index.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesc Alías ◽  
Ferran Orga ◽  
Rosa Ma Alsina-Pagès ◽  
Joan Claudi Socoró

Environmental noise can be defined as the accumulation of noise pollution caused by sounds generated by outdoor human activities, Road Traffic Noise (RTN) being the main source in urban and suburban areas. To address the negative effects of environmental noise on public health, the European Environmental Noise Directive requires EU member states to tailor noise maps and define the corresponding action plans every five years for major agglomerations and key infrastructures. Noise maps have been hitherto created from expert-based measurements, after cleaning the recorded acoustic data of undesired acoustic events, or Anomalous Noise Events (ANEs). In recent years, Wireless Acoustic Sensor Networks (WASNs) have become an alternative. However, most of the proposals focus on measuring global noise levels without taking into account the presence of ANEs. The LIFE DYNAMAP project has developed a WASN-based dynamic noise mapping system to analyze the acoustic impact of road infrastructures in real time based solely on RTN levels. After studying the bias caused by individual ANEs on the computation of the A-weighted equivalent noise levels through an expert-based dataset obtained before installing the sensor networks, this work evaluates the aggregate impact of the ANEs on the RTN measurements in a real-operation environment. To that effect, 304 h and 20 min of labeled acoustic data collected through the two WASNs deployed in both pilot areas have been analyzed, computing the individual and aggregate impacts of ANEs for each sensor location and impact range (low, medium and high) for a 5 min integration time. The study shows the regular occurrence of ANEs when monitoring RTN levels in both acoustic environments, which are especially common in the urban area. Moreover, the results reveal that the aggregate contribution of low- and medium-impact ANEs can become as critical as the presence of high-impact individual ANEs, thus highlighting the importance of their automatic removal to obtain reliable WASN-based RTN maps in real-operation environments.


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