Collaborative mapping of the noise level in Guayaquil during COVID-19

The SARS-CoV-2 virus triggered a never-before-seen scenario worldwide. Ecuador declared a state of emergency to contain coronavirus transmission by applying social isolation policies and mobility limitations. During this period, noise pollution decreased in Guayaquil city. This study proposes the use of smartphones to collect noise data and generate soundscape maps of Guayaquil during different time slots. The results revealed traffic as the predominant type of noise, followed by vehicles, buses, and people´s voices. This article demonstrates the feasibility of crowdsourcing for the collection of environmental variables. © 2022 National Institute for Space Research, INPE. All rights reserved.

Opening industry data: The private sector's role in addressing societal challenges

This commentary explores the potential of private companies to advance scientific progress and solve social challenges through opening and sharing their data. Open data can accelerate scientific discoveries, foster collaboration, and promote long-term business success. However, concerns regarding data privacy and security can hinder data sharing. Companies have options to mitigate the challenges through developing data governance mechanisms, collaborating with stakeholders, communicating the benefits, and creating incentives for data sharing, among others. Ultimately, open data has immense potential to drive positive social impact and business value, and companies can explore solutions for their specific circumstances and tailor them to their specific needs.

Smart Embedded Framework of Real-Time Pollution Monitoring and Alert System

The sustainability and progress of humanity depend on a clean, pollution-free environment, which is essential for good health and hygiene. Huge indoor auditorium does not have proper ventilation for air flow so when the auditorium is crowded the carbon di-oxide is emitted and it stays there for many days this may be a chance to spreading of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Without proper ventilation virus may present in the indoor auditorium. In the proposed system, emissions are detected by air, noise, and dust sensors. If the signal limit is exceeded, a warning is given to the authorities via an Android application and WiFi, and data is stored in cloud networks. In this active system, CO2 sensor, noise sensor, dust sensor, Microcontroller and an exhaust fan are used. This ESP-32 based system is developed in Arduino Integrated Development Environment (Aurdino IDE) to monitor air, dust and noise pollution in an indoor auditorium to prevent unwanted health problems related to noise and dust. More importantly, using IoT Android Application is developed in Embedded C, which continuously records the variation in levels of 3 parameters mentioned above in cloud and display in Android screen. Also, it sends an alert message to the users if the level of parameters exceeds the minimum and maximum threshold values with more accuracy and sensitivity. Accuracy and sensitivity of this products are noted which is very high for various input values. © 2022 IEEE.

Environmental Wellness Coping Strategies During Covid-19 Among Australian Families

The worldwide outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic affected every part of human lives, including the environment. Though not a welcoming era, it is certain that the 2019 pandemic was not the first of its kind nor is it going to be the last to affect human wellness. The various protocols implemented to mitigate the spread of the pandemic had significant effects on the wellness dimension relating to the environment. This study intended to explore the environmental wellness challenges experienced by some families in Melbourne, Australia, during COVID-19 and the strategies they used as they transitioned through the pandemic. The study outcome indicated that, the pandemic had both positive and negative effects on the environmental wellness of the families in this study. The strategies of the families are worthy of notice, for future approaches to deal with any pandemic. The study framed five possible inductive themes along the environmental wellness situation before COVID-19, overall effect of COVID-19 on environmental wellness, impact of COVID-19 on specific aspects of environmental wellness, pathways to the management of environmental wellness during COVID-19 and critically analyzing recommended changes to environmental wellness by the families in the study. It is expected that the proper implementation of the proposed strategies will significantly contribute toward environmental wellness for individuals and families facing environmental wellness challenges.Copyright © 2023, Codon Publications. All rights reserved.

A Comprehensive Review of Noise Measurement, Standards, Assessment, Geospatial Mapping and Public Health

Noise pollution is an emerging issue in cities around the world. Noise is a pernicious pollutant in urban landscapes mainly due to the increasing number of city inhabitants, road and aviation traffic, industrial and construction activities, and appliances or machinery used in daily life. The objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of noise measurement, guidelines/standards, and parameters used in noise monitoring;noise assessment associated with the area characteristics and the violations of guidelines/standards;noise geospatial mapping in urban planning;and physiological and psychological effects of noise exposure on public health.The review results revealed that standard methodology was lacking in many of the reviewed studies for noise measurement in various land-use patterns, especially the duration of noise monitoring;noise levels exceeded the prescribed noise standards in almost every noise assessment study across the globe irrespective of land-use or designated zone, and are exhibiting rising trends particularly due to traffic-induced noise;the majority of the urban population has been exposed to the noisy environment and affected with significant physiological and psychological health impacts;noise geospatial mapping has demonstrated high potential in noise abatement and management;and marked drop in noise levels in an urban environment during COVID-19 lockdown period.Based on the review results, the present study has suggested some future research perspectives of noise abatement and management that include a focus on - methodical noise assessment with prescribed guidelines of noise measurement and standards;geospatial noise mapping of urban areas, and real-time information system;universal database management software (DBMS) such as SQL and Improvado to compile data in single storage that will allow multiple users to access data despite different geographical locations;awareness programs using multi-media approaches in urban areas;and strict implementation of noise laws and regulations, that leads to the development of advanced technologies, integrated strategies, and sustainable environmental planning to mitigate the menace of noise pollution.

Role of the COVID-19 imposed lockdown in climate change

As the transmission of COVID-19 increases rapidly, the whole world adopted the lockdown activity with restriction of human mobility to prevent its spread. Everyone thinks of the COVID-19 negatively;however, it has some positive aspects too. Before COVID-19, the world was suffering by a high level of urban air pollution especially in the form of CO2, SO2, NO2 and particulate matter. During the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown and limited human engagement with nature accompanied by social distance have proven to be beneficial for nature. As a result, significant reduction in environmental pollution and improvement in the quality of air, cleaner rivers, less noise pollution, undisturbed and calm wildlife was observed. Knowledge gained from the studies suggests that a substantial relationship exists between the contingency measures and environmental health. It is concluded that the COVID-19-induced lockdown has a positive impact on the global warming, a major issue of the 21st century.

Chronic sleep disturbance among adult Canadians: Associations and implications to the evaluation of noise impacts under Canada's Impact Assessment Act

The Canadian Perspectives on Environmental Noise Survey was completed online by 6647 randomly selected Canadians 18 years of age and older between April 12 and May 25, 2021. The survey objective was to explore attitudes, perceptions, and expectations toward environmental noise in rural and non-rural Canada. The questionnaire assessed self-reported high sleep disturbance (HSD) in the previous year, at home. The prevalence of HSD was 7.8% overall. A list of potential sources of sleep disturbance was provided to the full sample, where 6.1%, 5.2%, and 3.0% reported HSD by noisy neighbors, road traffic noise and indoor noise, respectively. Stress/anxiety or worrying about something was selected most frequently at 12.9%. Finally, 7.6% and 5.5% reported pain/illness and partner's sleep disturbance, respectively, as sources of HSD. Reported HSD was significantly higher among respondents below 55 years of age, females, lower income groups, unemployed respondents, those on paid leave (sick, maternity, disability), and living in an urban area. Expectations of quiet, perceiving nighttime noise to have increased over time, high noise sensitivity, hearing and being highly annoyed by road traffic noise was also associated with an increased prevalence of reporting HSD. In contrast to hearing impairment and heart disease (including high blood pressure);rated physical health, mental health, anxiety/depression, and reporting a sleep disorder, were associated with increased HSD. The perceived affects of the COVID-19 pandemic on health and annoyance toward environmental and indoor noise also influenced HSD. In the fully adjusted multivariate logistic regression model, the effect of age, gender, changes in nighttime noise, road traffic noise annoyance, noise sensitivity and sleep disorder remained statistically significant. The univariate and multivariate models showed a similar prevalence of HSD between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous Canadians. Results are discussed in relation to the provision of advice on sleep and health under Canada's Impact Assessment Act. © 2023

A Quieter Ocean: Experimentally Derived Differences in Attentive Responses of Tursiops truncatus to Anthropogenic Noise Playbacks before and during the COVID-19-Related Anthropause.

The effects of anthropogenic noise continue to threaten marine fauna, yet the impacts of human-produced sound on the broad aspects of cognition in marine mammals remain relatively understudied. The shutdown of non-essential activities due to the COVID-19-related anthropause created an opportunity to determine if reducing levels of oceanic anthropogenic noise on cetaceans affected processes of sensitization and habituation for common human-made sounds in an experimental setting. Dolphins at Dolphin Quest Bermuda were presented with three noises related to human activities (cruise ship, personal watercraft, and Navy low-frequency active sonar) both in 2018 and again during the anthropause in 2021 via an underwater speaker. We found that decreased anthropogenic noise levels altered dolphin responses to noise playbacks. The dolphins spent significantly more time looking towards the playback source, but less time producing burst pulse and echolocation bouts in 2021. The dolphins looked towards the cruise ship sound source significantly more in 2021 than 2018. These data highlight that different sounds may incur different habituation and sensitization profiles and suggest that pauses in anthropogenic noise production may affect future responses to noise stimuli as dolphins dishabituate to sounds over time.

The new soundscape after the Covid-19 lockdown

We present a pilot study on the perception of noise and noise annoyance from various environmental sources after the COVID-19 lockdown in Serbia. We used an online platform to conduct an anonymous survey on about 190 respondents aged 15 to 75 years from all over the country. After the lockdown, there was a significant increase in the proportion of respondents who were highly annoyed by noise from the typical environmental sources, such as road traffic, air traffic, industrial facilities, and construction works on the streets, compared to the time during the lockdown. At the same time, the proportion of respondents who were highly annoyed by the sirens of ambulance vehicles decreased significantly. However, the most annoying environmental sound during and after the lockdown was that emitted by the ambulance vehicles, which respondents described as "unpleasant”, "horrifying” and "irritating”. The perception of the sounds of nature and church bells dropped significantly after the lockdown, whereas the perception of noise from the neighbors, household members, and indoor sources remained the same. In summary, after the lockdown, respondents perceive the new soundscape as louder, burdened with a cacophony of noises, and subsequently more annoying. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on community noise

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused considerable changes in our lives. It has influenced our society, education, economy, and environment as well as our lifestyle. We have got used to wearing face masks daily. Working or studying from home is not an unusual thing anymore. On the other hand, some that we used to regard as normal, such as travelling abroad, have become less normal in this era. These changes subsequently influenced the acoustic environment in our community. Countries have closed their borders, set travel restrictions, and ordered their residents to stay home. Due to the reduced number of travelling, recent studies have noticed changes in traffic noise exposure. In addition, people gather less (e.g. at pubs or social events) during the pandemic, which also has an impact on the acoustic environment in our community. This paper provides a review of the literature on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on community noise. Based on the review, this paper concludes with suggestions for future research directions to create a better acoustic environment in the post-COVID era. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.

How do the causal structures of noise annoyance and sleep effects change under the significant decrease in aircraft noise

Many models have been proposed to clarify the interactive effects of acoustic and non-acoustic variables on human perception of noise. Due to the corona pandemic, all flights were closed at the end of March 2020, causing an unprecedented change in the acoustic environment around Tan Son Nhat Airport (TSN). Before the outbreak, TSN was the busiest airport in Vietnam and had severe noise problems. This study focused on determining how acoustic and non-acoustic factors affect community health before and after this change. Approximately 1200 responses were obtained from surveys conducted in 12 residential areas around TSN in 2019 and 2020. Structural equation models (SEM) for noise annoyance and insomnia were developed by linking the questionnaire items of the social surveys. The first effort aims to achieve a common model of noise annoyance and insomnia corresponding to community response to noise before and after the change. It has been found that the degrees of annoyance and insomnia were not reduced, as expected, but increased in 2020. The final constructed SEM indicates that acoustic and non-acoustic factors affected the community health in different structures before and after the noise reduction. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.

Objective and perceived acoustic environments during the COVID-19 lockdown: An overview of evidence

The COVID-19 pandemic took a heavy toll on population health directly, but also triggered profound changes to social life, daily mobility patterns, and activity spaces. At the beginning, public health measures for limiting the spread of the virus mandated home confinement and limited outdoor activities, which in turn reshaped typical acoustic environments for many people. This overview provides a synopsis of the evidence of changes to residential noise exposure and perceived soundscape quality and components across different contexts. Most studies reported sound level reductions in the range of 4-10 dB. Reductions were larger on weekends compared with weekdays, and in previously socially active areas compared with traffic-dominated locations. People had a clear preference for the new lockdown soundscapes. Traffic noise levels reportedly declined across various settings, allowing for natural sounds, hitherto masked, to become more prominent. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.

STUDIES ON THE LEVEL OF SOUND POLLUTION IN BRAILA, ROMANIA

This paper presents the degree of noise pollution in Braila. Braila is a city located in southeastern Romania. For this purpose, sound level measurements were performed in various important locations in this city. The monitoring took place between November 2019 and June 2020. The measurements were performed using a professional digital acoustic sound level meter that can record sound values between 30dB-130dB. The sound level meter works with two frequency filters: "A” and "C”. "A” filter responds in the same way as the human ear to the increase and decrease of sound amplitude along the spectrum. "C” filter is suitable for uniform measurements without amplitude increase or amplitude decrease. "C” filter can measure the sound level for cars and engines. Both filters operate in the 31.3 Hz and 8 kHz range. The series measured with Noise Logger Communication Tool sound level meter in the two frequency domains were represented as a boxplot. In all monitored areas, the average values recorded in A frequency range are significantly lower than those recorded in C frequency range. This is due to the presence in the environment of some sources of noise from road traffic which includes light and high-speed cars. The data distribution is generally asymmetric to the left, with higher scores. After the establishment of the state of emergency caused by the spread of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, it is observed that the data distribution becomes asymmetric to the right, predominating the low values of the sound intensity level. Using Anova program we analyzed the similarity between the noise series measured in the A and C frequency range. For this purpose, Pearson coefficients also were calculated. © 2022 International Multidisciplinary Scientific Geoconference. All rights reserved.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF CRUISE SHIPS TO THE SOUND EMISSION OF A HARBOUR

In recent years, the growth of cruise tourism has often been at the centre of controversy due to the environmental impact, especially for those harbours that, for historical and urban planning reasons, are in close contact with urban areas of particular value or under cultural heritage protection. The deadlock of cruise activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic emergency created the conditions for observing the effects of the substantial disappearance of a specific sound source from the harbours of many cities. This paper presents the evaluation of the contribution of large cruise ships to the overall noise emitted by a specialized cruise harbour and the consequences of their absence on the urban acoustic climate. © International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration (IIAV), 2022.

Environmental Noise Annoyance Trends in Selected Locations in Bratislava

The rapid development in traffic density and the economic transformation since 1989 has brought new problems concerning road traffic noise in Slovakia. The aim is to follow the time trends of noise annoyance in monitored localities in Bratislava at time intervals of 10, 20, and 30 years. We used the validated methodology for subjective assessment of noise annoyance in young and healthy individuals, as well as a method of objectification by direct measurement of sound levels. Respondents (n=3,675) were university students, living in the exposed and control dormitories representing a homogenous sample. The sharp increase in traffic noise burden in the exposed area was found at the first 10-year interval (1989-1999) (LAeq=67.5 dB). A slight decrease occurred in 2019 up to LAeq=63.9 dB and during lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic it dropped to LAeq =62.5 dB. A sharp increase in road traffic noise annoyance was observed in the first 10-year interval (ORMH=2.56 (95 % CI=1.93-3.42) vs 6.01 (95% CI=4.97-7.95) with a slightly decreasing trend in 2020-2021. An increase in noise annoyance from entertainment facilities was observed as well. Despite a slightly declining trend, road traffic noise annoyance is still an important issue and there is a need for preventive measures to reduce such exposure in residential areas. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.

Viewing the changes in community annoyance due to aircraft noise over the times

More than 60 years have passed since the introduction of jet aircraft to civil aviation, and technological innovations have made aircraft much quieter. Nevertheless, people still complain that they experience severe suffering from aircraft noise. The changes in lifestyles, values concerning the sound environment, and aircraft operating conditions including the air traffic control system, over time, may have influenced the differences in annoyance responses. This paper overviews and considers the changes over time in the aircraft sound exposure level around the airport and the community annoyance caused by aircraft noise. Then it discusses the issue of recent noise complaints associated with the introduction of new air traffic management systems and flight routes as well as views the impact of coronavirus pandemic over the last two years or longer. Finally, it gives a minor consideration to how we should deal with these changes in the annoyance response. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.

MEMs Based Low-Cost Urban Noise Monitoring: Tests and Case Study

Noise pollution has been one of the main causes of citizens' discomfort in the urban centers in Brazil, an issue enhanced by the Covid pandemic that resulted in an increase of noise complaints, especially those related to noise from construction sites. This context triggered the construction industry to pursue solutions to understand the acoustic reality and minimize the impacts through regulations that require long-term noise measurements. Due to the necessity of a comprehensive evaluation in several locations, class 1 Sound Level Meters measurement systems can hardly be considered because of their high costs. This paper discusses the practical implementation of MEMs in a low-cost monitoring system for urban noise, focusing on construction sites. The prototype, based on a Raspberry Pi (a single-board computer model widely used in IoT projects) and a MEMs microphone with I2S interface for high-fidelity digital audio communication, was compared in a controlled environment to a Sound Level Meter of Class 1 through validation tests, such as calibration, frequency response, and dynamic range. Field measurements were also carried out in typical urban noise-generating sound environments. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.

Simulating Changes in Aircraft Noise at Heathrow Airport during the 2020 Covid-19 Lockdown

Global restrictions on domestic and international travel introduced in March 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a significant reduction in air traffic movements around the world. This paper presents the findings of research carried out at London Heathrow Airport exploring the day-by-day changes in aircraft noise exposure and event levels over the period March 2020 to June 2020. The research was carried out using validated modelling of aircraft procedures and noise profiles alongside radar data obtained from the airport. This allowed trends in metrics such as LAeq, N65, and overflight to be considered in the form of contours, and at community locations. This was facilitated using geospatial databases and interactive dynamic reporting toolkits. The research has allowed estimates to be made of the point where aircraft noise at Heathrow Airport reached a minimum. It also provides some helpful insight as to the potential of generating daily noise exposure data and the advantages, and disadvantages of modelling using radar data. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.

CURRENT DEVELOPMENT OF AN AIRCRAFT NOISE PREDICTION ALGORITHM: AN OVERVIEW

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work has been widely adopted as one of the safe management measures at workplaces. The rapid advancement in communications technology has enabled work to still be delivered efficiently and effectively through virtually. With remote work being a norm in workplace management, housing estates are expected to remain largely occupied during office hours. For residents who are staying near to an aerodrome, their work concentration may be affected by aircraft noise pollution. Prolonged aircraft noise exposure could have negative effects in the built environment. Therefore, it is timely to emphasise the importance of aircraft noise prediction and management at the outset of urban planning. This paper presents the current development of an aircraft noise prediction algorithm, which will eventually serve as a tool to study the effects and control measures of aircraft noise. © International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration (IIAV), 2022.