scholarly journals Analysis of the Noise Pollution in the Bielański Forest NATURA 2000 Area in Light of Existing Avifauna (Warsaw, Poland)

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1316
Author(s):  
Agata Pawłat-Zawrzykraj ◽  
Paweł Oglęcki ◽  
Konrad Podawca
Keyword(s):  
Hot Spots ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Traffic Noise ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Sound Intensity ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Natura 2000 ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Key Species

There is no doubt that the NATURA 2000 network has been one of the most relevant tools for nature protection. However, the designated areas within the borders of large cities are subjected to many threats. Traffic noise takes on a very important role in this subject, posing the question of whether NATURA 2000 areas should be located in urban areas strongly affected by noise pollution. This particular topic was exposed and analysed at Bielański Forest NATURA 2000 (PLH140041), located in northern Warsaw, where changes in noise distribution for the years 2007–2017 were examined and described by two types of indicators (Lden and Lnight). The data sources used for the analysis were city road noise maps for 2007, 2012 and 2017. Additionally, sound intensity measurements were taken in two separate groups of hot-spots. The first of these comprised locations determined based on an inventory of avifauna; they represented different habitat types, and were characterized by the highest bird activity. The second group of hot-spots consisted of those designated along roads in order to identify the main sources of traffic noise. The obtained results confirmed the high noise-absorbing ability of the existing vegetation. The avifauna surveys covered 19 forest bird species. Five of them were considered to be the most valuable and rare elements of the local avifauna, whereas 14 appeared to be key species for the functioning of biocenosis and, at the same time, determine the uniqueness of the ecosystem. The study showed that the type of habitat rather than differences in noise levels determines the distribution and abundance of key species. Therefore, there is a necessity to focus on actions that guarantee the maintenance of the existing status in order to counteract habitat deterioration. The investigation confirmed the feasibility of creating these kinds of natural protected areas in large cities, despite their exposure to noise pollution.

scholarly journals Noise Events Monitoring for Urban and Mobility Planning in Andorra la Vella and Escaldes-Engordany

Environments ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Alsina-Pagès ◽  
Robert Garcia Almazán ◽  
Marc Vilella ◽  
Marc Pons
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Traffic Noise ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Road Traffic Noise ◽  
City Life ◽  
The Impact

Noise pollution is a critical factor and it has an important impact on public health, with the relationship between road traffic noise (RTN) and several illnesses in urban areas of particular concern. Andorra is currently developing a national strategy regarding noise pollution in their urban environments. The Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Sustainability is trying to to identify, monitor, map and model the effects of noise pollution and design mitigation policies to reduce the impact in certain priority areas. This analysis should take into account the existence of different types of anomalous noise events (ANEs) present in the street, e.g., horns, people talking, music, and other events that coexist with RTN, to characterize the soundscape of each of the locations. This paper presents a preliminary analysis considering both the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and the duration of the ANEs to evaluate their presence in urban areas in the three different locations in Andorra la Vella and Escaldes-Engordany. The experiments conducted required a 10-h recording campaign distributed in the three locations under study, which was evaluated on two different days, one during the week and the other on the weekend. Afterwards, the data were carefully labeled and the SNR of each event was evaluated to determine the potential impact of the four categories under study: vehicles, works, city life and people.

scholarly journals Review of recent EU funded research projects from the perspective of urban sound planning: do the results cope with the needs of Europe’s noise policy?

Noise Mapping ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Alves ◽  
Joachim Scheuren ◽  
Beate Altreuther
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Noise Exposure ◽  
Traffic Noise ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Action Programme ◽  
Funding Support ◽  
Dissemination Of Results ◽  
The Eu

AbstractNoise pollution is one of the major environmental problems affecting European citizens in urban areas. Although the Environmental Noise Directive is in force since 2002, there is still a gap between defined objectives and outcomes. The EU Seventh Environment Action Programme attempts to achieve the reduction of noise pollution by means of more effective European noise policies. This must be coupled with providing assistance to local administrations on dealing with existing noise problems, for example through Urban Sound Planners. The aim of this paper is to present the results of a systematic review of European projects addressing urban sound planning topics and furthermore an overview of the most relevant research results that can be applied by practitioners. In order to understand the European funding strategy, the most valued research topics (number of projects and funding support) are assessed. A key finding of this review is the disagreement between air traffic noise research funding and its importance on overall noise exposure. Another finding is that the scientific knowledge for urban sound planning exists but it requires adequately dissemination of results, among the policy makers and local authorities, who are usually responsible for policy implementation.

scholarly journals Population trends of Goričko agricultural landscape birds

Acrocephalus ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (174-175) ◽  
pp. 127-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarina Denac ◽  
Primož Kmecl ◽  
Gregor Domanjko ◽  
Damijan Denac
Keyword(s):  
Nature Conservation ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Natura 2000 ◽  
Population Trends ◽  
Land Consolidation ◽  
Bird Conservation ◽  
Habitat Types ◽  
Nature Protection

AbstractDue to numerous bird surveys in the past 20 years, the avifauna of Goričko is relatively well known. For some species, the very first national ecological researches were conducted in this area. The article summarizes all bird surveys so far. It presents population trends of farmland species which is one of the most threatened bird groups in Europe. Most of the qualifying species of this habitat that are protected within the Natura 2000 network have suffered a decline at Goričko, specifically QuailCoturnix coturnix, Scops OwlOtus scops, HoopoeUpupa epops, WoodlarkLullula arboreaand White StorkCiconia ciconia. The number of breeding pairs of the latter has not changed, but its fecundity has decreased. Furthermore, populations of other farmland bird species have decreased, for example SkylarkAlauda arvensis, StonechatSaxicola rubicola, SerinSerinus serinusand Common LinnetLinaria cannabina, as well as butterfly populations and tracts of grassland habitat types. National agricultural and nature conservation policies are evidently inefficient in protecting the biodiversity of Goričko. The most probable cause for bird population decline is agricultural intensification, which manifests itself at Goričko as disappearance and intensification of meadows, land consolidation, degradation of traditional orchards and use of pesticides. As a result of land consolidation hedges, uncultivated strips between fields, individual trees and bushes and minority habitat types are disappearing, whereas the surface of arable fields is increasing. Nature conservation measures performed by the Public Institute Goričko Nature Park with the support of DOPPS – BirdLife Slovenia volunteers seem to be efficient, but are spatially and temporally constrained. For this reason, they cannot serve as a substitute for insufficient systemic financing which could be improved by substantive and financial reform of the agri-environmental scheme. Currently, a negligible percentage (1% in 2016) of Goričko is covered by agrienvironmental scheme measures with positive influence on qualifying species and habitat types. As a consequence, only an insignificant share of subsidies from the Rural Development Plan is used for nature protection at Goričko. If the system of agricultural subsidies remains unaltered, no improvement of the conditions for bird conservation at Goričko can be expected.

Traffic Noise Pollution in a Historical City Center - Case Study Project within Environmental Engineering Field of Study

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 289-296
Author(s):  
Valentin Petrescu ◽  
Rodica Ciudin ◽  
Claudiu Isarie ◽  
Lucian Ionel Cioca ◽  
Victor Nederita
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Traffic Noise ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
City Center ◽  
Road Surfaces ◽  
Asphalt Road ◽  
Traffic Related Pollution ◽  
Behavior Frequency

AbstractNoise reduction for urban areas, especially noise generated by traffic is one of the major problems in today’s European cities. This paper is focused on more aspects that are addressing to traffic noise, like pavement, driver’s behavior, frequency of stops, pick hours, traffic agglomerations, etc. Research leading to this paper was conducted within the project “Adaptation to the Climate Change” developed in partnership with Environmental protection Agency Sibiu, focusing for this case study on traffic related pollution in a historical city center of Sibiu. Were considered three types of pavements (cobblestones, streets covered with dense asphalt, and graded asphalt road surfaces), three types of vehicles (small passenger car, family car and SUV), and testing’s were done using 3M Quest SoundPro Sonometer. Higher noise levels were registered for cobblestone and dense asphalt surfaces. Acoustic measurements and maps emphasizing studied are presented, and the identified parameters considered to be related to the traffic noise are given.

scholarly journals The use of green walls and the impact on air quality and life standard

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 00096
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Wesołowska ◽  
Marta Laska
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Traffic Noise ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Heating And Cooling ◽  
Air Pollutions ◽  
Green Walls ◽  
The Impact

People living in urban areas are exposed to a number of threats related with dense urban tissue and high number of vehicles. These include air pollutions, traffic noise and high temperatures. In addition, large cities are struggling with high energy consumption for heating and cooling purposes. One of the possibilities to reduce the mentioned undesirable effects is the use of vegetation on the walls. Plants absorbs the pollutants of air, produced the oxygen, mounted on external walls create thermal insulation and positively affect the psychological aspect. Green walls can be used both indoors and outdoors. The article presents literature review on green walls, describes their benefits and presents the calculations SPBT and possible energy savings taking into account the transmission losses for small residential building.

Measurement of Acoustic Properties of the Safety Anti-Skid Modification - ROCBINDATM

2018 ◽  
Vol 1145 ◽  
pp. 140-145
Author(s):  
Petr Kozak ◽  
Radka Matuszkova ◽  
Michal Radimsky
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Traffic Noise ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Road Traffic Noise ◽  
The Road ◽  
Vehicle Propulsion

The noise pollution is an important factor for people living near roads. The road traffic noise is endangering the health of these residents and the quality of their lives. The tyre / road noise became the most significant source of the road traffic noise due reduced noise emissions from the vehicle propulsion system by the automotive industry. An important recent trend is increasing the traffic safety by improving anti-skid properties of roads in critical locations. Experts have concluded that some anti-skid modifications may increase the noise pollution. Because the usage of such pavements is predominantly in urban areas, problems may occur. This paper deals with the noise level of the safety anti-skid modification of the road surface used in the urban areas. Based on the presented measurement values it can be said that the RocbindaTM safety anti-skid modification does not achieve any increased acoustic performance compared to the asphalt pavement.

scholarly journals A Piecewise-Defined Function for Modelling Traffic Noise on Urban Roads

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Mariano Gallo
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Traffic Noise ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Traffic Flows ◽  
Noise Effects ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Logarithmic Form ◽  
Low Traffic

In this paper, a piecewise-defined function is proposed to estimate traffic noise in urban areas. The proposed approach allows the use of the model even in the case of very low or zero flows for which the classical logarithmic form is not suitable. A model based on the proposed approach is calibrated for a real case and compared with the results obtained with a model based only on the logarithmic form. The results obtained show how the proposed piecewise-defined function, linear for low traffic flows and logarithmic for medium-high volumes, is able to better represent real noise pollution levels in all conditions. The proposed approach is particularly useful when comparing two plan scenarios from the point of view of noise effects.

scholarly journals LIFE SOUNDLESS: New Generation of Eco-Friendly Asphalt with Recycled Materials

Environments ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Angel Morcillo ◽  
María Elena Hidalgo ◽  
María del Carmen Pastrana ◽  
David García ◽  
Juana Torres ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Dynamic Stiffness ◽  
Traffic Noise ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Traffic Density ◽  
Road Noise ◽  
Acoustic Performance ◽  
Stone Mastic Asphalt ◽  
High Level ◽  
Selection Of

Noise pollution coming from traffic noise has become an important issue in urban areas. Road noise is one of the main sources of high-level traffic noise. Road noise depends not only on tires but on the pavement. Therefore, a study of mixture parameters should be performed to achieve good acoustic performance. Another important point which has to be taken into account is the acoustic performance durability. Gap-graded mixtures were selected for this project due to poor experiences with open-graded mixtures in terms of performance durability, where texture and clogging issues appeared a few years after paving. The LIFE SOUNDLESS project is seeking different ways to modify stone mastic asphalt mixes to improve the noise attenuation of pavements. A selection of mixes with different additives were created, where some waste materials were used. The selection of the best mixtures was done not only according to traditional mechanical parameters but also others, such as damping and dynamic stiffness. Once the best mixtures had been paved, the acoustic performances were measured several times to evaluate the performance durability. Several experimental methods like the close proximity (CPX) method and statistical pass by (SPB) method were used to check the sound generation and propagation of every pavement. The project was carried out on two roads overseen by the Junta de Andalucía in Seville (Spain). The difference between both roads was the traffic density and the average speed. The noise level has since been reduced by 3 dB and 7 dB on both sites.

Low-Noise Asphalt Pavements in Urban Areas

2016 ◽  
Vol 858 ◽  
pp. 282-286
Author(s):  
Petr Kozak ◽  
Ondrej Dasek ◽  
Radka Matuszkova ◽  
Michal Radimsky
Keyword(s):  
Asphalt Concrete ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Traffic Noise ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Low Noise ◽  
Thin Layers ◽  
Asphalt Pavements ◽  
Road Traffic Noise ◽  
Vehicle Speed

Current requirements for the reduction of the noise pollution in inhabited areas are constantly increasing. Acoustic wearing courses represent the real measures how to directly mitigate sources of road traffic noise created by a tire/road contact. Directly reduced noise emissions created by a tire/road contact don't need further mitigation by expensive noise barriers. Noise emissions on two different types of wearing courses of asphalt mixtures (Asphalt concrete for very thin layers and Low-noise stone mastic asphalt) were measured using the specialized device operating on the basis of CPX (Close Proximity method) and compared with the standard mixture of Asphalt concrete. Differences were between 1 dB and 5 dB depending on the wearing course and the vehicle speed. The efficiency of the low-noise asphalt pavements was also compared with the initial costs of the pavements. The economical evaluation confirmed that the initial costs of the acoustic wearing courses are higher than the costs of the standard asphalt concrete mixture. However the noise reduction by 1 dB using the asphalt concrete for very thin layers increases the costs just by 350 USD (considering the same length and width of the road segment), which makes acoustic wearing courses the economically efficient noise reducing measure.

scholarly journals Optimize the noise factor of traffic flow in Lviv

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
B. M. Kalyn ◽  
M. I. Shelevij
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Noise ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Road Transport ◽  
Motor Vehicles ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Traffic Lights ◽  
Current State ◽  
State Study ◽  
The City ◽  
Harmful Effects

The article provides an overview of the current state study of one of the most pressing environmental problems of large cities – the problem of noise pollution. Due to the increasing number of cars, industrial machines and mechanisms to date, over 60% of people living in cities, daily exposed to excessive noise. The aim is to study the problem of noise pollution urboecosystem of Lviv and finding effective methods to combat with noise. Identified sources, the main characteristics and ways of dealing with the harmful effects of noise pollution. Established magnitude of noise burden on certain streets and filed a comprehensive assessment of the acoustic load of the city. A performance experiments noise which generated of motor vehicles when driving on different stretches of road near two intersections – st. Franko – Green and Levitsky – Tershakovciv. Near the street. Franko during bilateral traffic and trams bilateral traffic noise performance of road transport accounted 75,7dBA +/– 3.2. By reducing the transport speed to 6–10 km/h performance noise constituted 70,4dBA +/– 2.5. Indicators of noise on the Levitsky street during a stop to road transport and traffic lights at the beginning of the movement consisted 66,8dBA +/– 2.9 and 2.6 +/– 69,8dBA. Indicators of noise on the Tershakovciv street respectively amounted to 63.8 +/– 3.2 dBA and 65.2 +/– 3.3 dBA. Today, the simplest and most common methods of noise control is the discharge of roads, planting green space and installing anti–noise screens.

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