Soundscape in North-Eastern Part of Iasi City (Sararie – Ticau District)
This paper presents a complex study of noise levels from road trafficsource and the variation during the seasons in an old residential arealocated in the north-eastern part of Iasi city, an important educationaland cultural centre of the country. The study reveal the correlationbetween noise levels and social activities developed in the area: lownumber of inhabitants because of the holidays time in August and theresumption of the educational activity in autumn,including school start in September and of the university activity inOctober.After direct observations, the measurements were made with digital sound–level meter Quest Technologies, 1400 model in five hour intervals 7:00 -8:00; 10:00 - 11:00; 13:30 - 14:30; 18:00 - 19:00; 19:00 - 20:00. Themonitoring of Equivalent Continuous Noise Level (Leq) were made in 30points located along the different type of roads in the second part ofAugust – October 2009, with different admissible levels, showing theexceeding of the limit in 5 points in September and 8 points in October. Itcan be observed an important difference during the week in the monitoringperiod, between Monday to Friday and the week-end with lower values 59.64 -6.5 dB (A) in August, 61.98 - 5.14 dB (A) in September, 63.9 - 5.3dB (A) inOctober and among the four street categories with major differences betweenfirst category: 66.89 dB (A) and fourth category 47.69 dB (A), so thaturban noise can be stratified according to a prior classification of atown’sstreets due to their use and functional characteristics. Sound levelsmonitoring and statistical data processing (Pearson correlationcoefficient, Tukey range test)sustain the fact that road traffic is main source of noise in the area,differentiated in correlation with street category,a decrease in noise withincreasing street category, with insignificant differences between firstand second streetcategory thank to the best management and traffic control.