Band 9, Heft 1

Noise is considered one of the most critical environmental issues because it endangers the health of living organisms. For this reason, up-to-date knowledge seeks to find the causes of noise in various industries and thus prevent it as much as possible. Considering the development of railway lines in underdeveloped countries, identifying and modeling the causes of vibrations and noise of rail transportation is of particular importance. The evaluation of railway performance cannot be imagined without measuring and managing noise. This study tried to model the maximum A-weighted noise pressure level with the information obtained from field measurements by Emotional artificial neural network (EANN) models and compare the results with linear and logarithmic regression models. The results showed the high efficiency of EANN models in noise prediction so that the prediction accuracy of 95.6% was reported. The results also showed that in noise prediction based on the neural network-based model, the independent variables of train speed and distance from the center of the route are essential in predicting.

The aim of the paper is to define a method for evaluating infrastructural interventions for the mitigation of noise generated by roads based on multi-criteria analysis which considers a series of parameters (environmental, social, economic and health) that could give broader evaluations than just economic convenience. The research develops a guideline based on an already known methodology applied in other fields, which has been adapted to the above-mentioned topic: the multi-criteria analysis. The decision to use this method originates from an in-depth study of the state of the art regarding the issue of noise pollution related to transport infrastructures in Italy and at a European level. The Multi-criteria Analysis proved to be the best solution both for completeness and versatility. In particular, the developed methodology uses the Analytic Hierarchy Process as a multi-criteria analysis method. Through its hierarchical structure, this method offers a comparison not only between possible interventions, but also between the same criteria taken into consideration for the choice of the best intervention. The model was validated by analyzing a real noise mitigation project on an Italian main road. The results showed how the model could represent a valid support to decision-making processes.

The noise received from an aircraft is modified by atmospheric attenuation and reflections from the ground. The interference of direct and reflected waves is simplest for a flat ground, whereas multiple reflections can occur for rough ground or mountainous surroundings. The ground characteristics, like reflection and absorption factors or impedance, also affect the received sound. All these effects have to be considered with respect to the path of the aircraft. Most of the literature about ground effects on aircraft noise considers a point source over a flat ground, using the method of images, that does not extend readily to rough ground. The effect of rough ground on aircraft noise can be modelled by: (i) identification of reflection points (there may be several points); (ii) use of a complex reflection coefficient (with amplitude and phase changes) at each reflection point; (iii) adding all reflected waves within line-of-sight of the receiver, that is not blocked by terrain (there is no blockage for a flat ground).

This article analyses the most recent studies on urban traffic noise. About 67 relevant articles on urban road traffic noise and its mitigation strategies were preferred for a critical review. Only 5.97% of items describe how to monitor and record the noise measurement for urban roads, while 7.46% of articles enumerated urban traffic noise pollution exposure. 29.85% of articles proposed a model to evaluate noise reduction effects and predict the noise level. Also, many articles reported noise map generation and its analysis. 56.71% of articles described the noise mitigation strategies in detail, concerning noise control by green vegetation, land use planning, low noise tire and pavement material, noise reduction through façade shielding. Noise pollution standards are being breached in all areas. There is a need for the proper implementation of rules and regulations. Therefore, noise mitigation strategies such as designing noise barriers and other noise control materials are needed. Finally, it is summarized that economic and low-cost optimized noise pollution mitigation strategies like ingeniously made noise barriers, vegetation and landscaping are need of the hour for urban areas of developing countries.

This paper presents a bibliometric and critical review of auditory and non-auditory health impacts due to road traffic noise exposure. The paper discusses the general trends of studies conducted in the research domain using the bibliometric network approach. These networks are based on citation, bibliographic coupling, and co-authorship relationships. Further, a critical review is conducted to summarise the auditory and non-auditory impacts due to traffic noise exposure. Auditory health impact issues such as noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) and tinnitus are presented. Non-auditory impacts are categorised as physiology and performance-related impacts. Physiology related health impact includes a review of cardiovascular and sleep disturbance issues due to noise. Performance-related health impact includes annoyance and cognitive impairment issues. This paper discusses the severity level, different exposure-response relationships, techniques, and empirical models developed to assess the magnitude of these health impacts. Subjective and laboratory assessment techniques used to analyse the health impact through various modeling and statistical approaches are considered. Additionally, a scenario analysis of health impact due to heterogeneous transportation is performed. An assessment is done to find the applicability of health risk prediction models in heterogeneous traffic conditions.

The paper reports the main contents of the guidelines developed in the framework of the project ANCHOR, acronym of Advanced Noise Control strategies in HarbOuR, which is a European Project funded as part of the announcement Life 2017. The guidelines represent an updated version of those elaborated in the NoMEPorts project named ‘Good Practice Guide on Port Area Noise Mapping and Management’; the aim is to define a common approach in port noise monitoring and assessment, considering the outcomes of previous EU funded projects and the algorithms defined by the European Directive 2015/996, in order to produce Port Noise Impact Assessments to be included in ports Environmental Management Systems (EMS). The procedures described in the guidelines will guide professionals in organizing and managing geographical data, in characterizing noise sources and defining, for each of them, the correct noise emission power level, in evaluating noise propagation and people exposure to noise and, finally, in selecting the most efficient mitigation action by means of a cost benefit analysis. Moreover, the paper reports the results of a comparison between noise mapping outcomes obtained using the new noise mapping algorithms defined by the 2015/996 Directive and the old 2002/49/EC Annex II ones; especially at long distances from the source the differences between the two methodologies are not negligible.

The aim of the paper is to describe a portable, modular, and scaleable system for measuring concurrent acoustic transmission loss and atmospheric characteristics. This system has been developed specifically to inform an effort to improve the ability to implement high fidelity numerical predictions of acoustic transmission loss, particularly in acoustically complex outdoor ranges, such as those that occur in coastal areas. Such a system has broad possible applicability in many outdoor atmospheric acoustic monitoring scenarios.

Noise pollution is one of the environmental factors that severely threaten humans’ mental, emotional, and physical health. One of the most significant sources of this pollution is the noise generated by traffic and urban transportation, mainly the urban railway. This paper assessed noise pollution at stations, passenger cars, and the train operator’s cabin. Four consecutive Baghdad subway stations were used to collect information. There were three modes of measurement: entering the station, stopping at the station, and leaving the station. L eq (equivalent continuous noise level) at station 3 is more significant than at three other stations, confirming that the initial hypothesis regarding the noise pollution rate was correct. Among the studied stations, Station 1 was the quietest. The stations with the highest and lowest L eq values are 3 and 2, respectively. The L eq values recorded in the cabin are within the permissible range. The highest L eq value measured at station 3 is 81.87 dB(A), and the lowest L eq value measured at station 2 is 61.24 dB(A). The operator’s cabin at station 3 has the highest measured L eq of 70.26 dB(A), and station 1 has the lowest measured L eq of 61.5 dB(A). While the measured value in the operator’s cabin was within the acceptable range, the noise levels in the wagons were above standard.

One of the adverse effects of industrialization is noise pollution, which disturbs the mental health and tranquility of urban residents and is the source of numerous social tensions. Twenty stations in the central areas of Almaty with varying uses during the morning, afternoon, and evening rush hours were measured for this study. The objectives of this paper include determining sound indices, identifying potential sound sources, and calculating the relative contribution of each to the overall urban noise level. Additionally, 400 questionnaires were distributed to individuals to assess noise pollution’s effects on individuals. The average maximum value of TNI (Traffic Noise Index) in residential and commercial use is 85.4 dB(A), and the maximum value of Leq (Equivalent continuous sound level) in commercial use is 86 dB(A). In addition, 50 city bus drivers were examined to determine the impact of noise in this environment. The results revealed that as Leq increases, the number of unsafe acts increases. The questionnaires revealed that people are significantly more dissatisfied with noise pollution at stations with higher sound levels.

Increasing levels of noise pollution in urban environments are a primary cause of various physical and psychological health issues. There is an urgent requirement to manage environmental noise by assessing the current levels of noise pollution by gathering real-world data and building a fine-granularity real-time noise map. Traditionally, simulation-based, small-scale sensor-network-based, and participatory sensing-based approaches have been used to estimate noise levels in urban areas. These techniques are inadequate to gauge the prevalence of noise pollution in urban areas and have been shown to leak private user data. This paper proposes a novel federated learning-based urban noise mapping system, FL-NoiseMap, that significantly enhances the privacy of participating users without adversely affecting the application performance. We list several state-of-the-art urban noise monitoring systems that can be seamlessly ported to the federated learning-based paradigm and show that the existing privacy-preserving approaches can be used as an add-on to enhance participants’ privacy. Moreover, we design an “m-hop” application model modification approach for privacy preservation, unique to FL-NoiseMap. We also describe techniques to maintain data reliability for the proposed application. Numerical experiments on simulated datasets showcase the superiority of the proposed scheme in terms of users’ privacy preservation and noise map reliability. The proposed scheme achieves the lowest average normalized root mean square error in the range of 4% to 7% as the number of participants varies between 500 and 5000 while providing maximum coverage of over 95% among various competing algorithms. The proposed malicious contribution removal framework can decrease the average normalizedroot mean square error by more than 50% for simulations having up to 20% malicious users.

Noise, defined as unwanted or misplaced sound, produces negative impacts on people’s health and well-being and is a growing concern of health authorities, administrators, educators. Some reviews of the legislative and regulatory scenarios, show a clear lack of consideration of the non-auditory effects produced by exposure to noise and poor acoustic quality in the workplace, this paper refers to experiences and methods aimed at understanding the different aspects of risk. Non-auditory aspects are added to the auditory ones, considered at the moment as the only area of noise risk assessment. The acute extra-auditory effects from exposure to noise are also studied. Among the risk-enhancing factors we consider the negative synergy between noise and air pollution. Analysis of industrial noise at operator’s positions of different industrial sites was carried out. The results of measurements are allowing determine positions with significant excesses of the sanitary standards of noise levels and valid sanitary norms. Especially significant noise values were observed in low frequency range. Maps of noise levels at working places of different industrial sites were developed.

The paper introduces a framework for comprehensive simulation workflow of the built environment using the Pachyderm Acoustics plugin inside the Grasshopper 3D interface. It aims to model the shared relationship between residential buildings and hardscape. The findings indicate different levels of absorption and scattering coefficient in reference to the hardscape specifications during the A-weighted SPL measurements and varying intensities of sound power energy source wave emissions. The author evaluated and simulated a seven-zoned district using two hardscape materials’ specifications. Results indicate that medium sound power intensity has the greatest impact on noise reduction, with a value in the range of 1.5 dB(A) to 5.9 dB(A), the lowest power is 1.3 dB(A) to 3.2 dB(A) and the highest power is 1 dB(A) to 3.5 dB(A). Additionally, the shielding effect occurring between buildings aids in noise reduction due to the multitude and long paths of sound rays that can mitigate the embodied energy.

The development of subways in cities has provided great comfort to the citizens, but it has brought adverse effects to the residents of the buildings adjacent to the subway lines. The main effects are Structure Borne Noise (SBN) and Structure Borne Vibration (SBV), which are identified as environmental challenges. In this research, the extent and seriousness of SBV and SBN annoyances to people were investigated. This is made in two steps; first a thorough field test was made to evaluate the level of train-induced noise and vibration; then, a comprehensive investigation was made on the level of people annoyance from train-induced vibration and noise, using results obtained from interviews and questionnaires. The results obtained indicate that health concerns, economic losses, building damages and social harms were the most important factors, which cause annoyance of the citizens. These annoyances caused citizens to take their complaints to judiciary system in the world. In the second part of this research, the effectiveness and sufficiency of the current laws and legislation to protect the citizen against SBV/SBN annoyance are evaluated. The results indicate that there are limitations in the current laws in regard to crime determination, criminal identification, estimation of damages to citizens, citizen rights regarding the annoyance caused by SBV/SBN. Also, there is a lack of legal awareness among the citizens who do not know how to get their legal rights. The results of this research showed that the judicial bodies should improve and extend the current laws and make more low-enforcement to protect people against the growing problem of SBV/SBN. Also, there is a need to make people more familiar with their civil rights in regard to SBN and SBV.

The paper presents an original methodology for the identification of intervention priorities through a tailored priority index IP in areas that are highly-exposed to port noise. The methodology is applied to a case study developed in the framework of the European project ANCHOR, acronym of Advanced Noise Control strategies in HarbOuR, funded as part of the announcement Life 2017. In detail, the paper discusses the results of its application in the assessment of the evolution of port noise impacts in the city of Melilla, Spain. The methodology has been applied considering the port with or without the realization of an expansion project on three different time periods; differences between standard and the summer traffic peak season have been considered. Finally, the paper evaluates the realization of cold ironing in the most impacting port area, the passenger (Ro-Pax) terminal. The results of the analyses demonstrate how the measure is a key action to mitigate noise in port areas. The methodology is not limited to the identification of city areas that needs to be protected; it also aims to identify port areas where anti-noise actions would produce the greatest effect. The index also allows to build a ranking to understand where anti-noise actions are more useful and urgent.

Schools in urban areas are often located in areas with high traffic and noise pollution that affect the overall and sonic quality of the external spaces. Due to this, teachers and students are exposed to high noise levels, this condition could have an impact on the perceptive-cognitive and neurobehavioral aspects, determining auditory and extra-auditory effects from exposure to noise. The BRiC - ID14 project, funded by INAIL, investigates the extra-auditory effects of noise exposure on primary and secondary school teachers and students. In this study, the assessment of sonic, acoustic and overall environment of the external area of three kindergartens, three primary schools and three secondary ones located in Rome, Florence and Perugia was carried out. The external areas were investigated and discussed by analyzing the acoustic, psychoacoustic and subjective data collected. The results obtained by the acoustic measurements campaign under non-occupied conditions were compared with the soundscape measurements outcomes, under occupied conditions. The two measurements campaign revealed that the obtained values are comparable in terms of objective and subjective responses. The differences observed in the perception of the sonic and overall environment are ascribable to different noise sources located close to the schools.

Soundscapes affect the health and quality of life of humans. Noisy soundscapes have a negative impact on humans causing annoyance, sleep disturbance and cardiovascular issues. This paper analyses the change in heart rate variability (HRV) due to exposure of different soundscape stimuli. A total of 40 soundscape stimuli were collected from New Delhi India, which were grouped into three clusters, ‘Loud’, ‘Active’ and ‘Silent’, based on psychoacoustic indicators. Listening experiments were conducted with 25 healthy participants, during which electro-cardiography responses were collected as response variable. HRV analysis was performed to analyse the change in time domain (Heart rate, SDNN, NN50, pNN50) and frequency domain (VLF, LF, HF, LF/LF ratio) parameters. A significant change in heart rate is observed with an increase in loudness of stimuli. The change in HRV is analysed by considering noise sensitivity level of participants. A significant decrease in SDNN is noted for participants with high noise sensitivity. Frequency domain parameters of HRV did not exhibit a significant change due to noise exposure. A significant decrease in SDNN suggests imbalanced autonomic nervous system activation, which increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, particularly for people with high noise sensitivity.

Due to the difficulty of accessing quiet urban areas as defined by the EU Directive 2002/49/EC and of designing new ones, especially in the historical centers, it becomes more and more important to recognize pockets of quiet which can provide visitors with time for their physical and mental restoration. To this aim, an investigation methodology has been developed in previous studies conducted in Naples (Italy), Istanbul (Turkey) and Murcia (Spain) focused on finding and characterization of alternative quiet spaces which could offer opportunities to rest from the surrounding noise, which highlighted the role of non-auditory aspects on the restorativeness of urban spaces, such as green and water elements, or of historic and cultural value. This methodology which includes objective and subjective assessment has been used to characterize and illustrate the potentialities of the existing and potential spaces for restoration within the ancient center of the city of Florence (Italy). Concerning acoustic measurements, the “quietness” is confirmed by the fact that the differences between the sound levels (LAeq) of the surrounding areas and those within selected sites is greater than 9 dB; while the outcomes of the survey confirm the expectations especially concerning the importance and relevance, the cultural value, the historical-artistic elements, the perceived sense of being away and the distinction with the external acoustic environment.

Environmental noise prevention starts from strategic noise maps of main transport infrastructures and agglomerations. Graduated colors are representative of the average noise levels produced in space by each individual source, or the by the overall sum. Among their purposes, communication of results to population has been the most neglected. The present paper proposes predominance maps for the first time in environmental acoustic (NSP). NSP are visualization tool showing the predominant source in each point by means of polygons and colors. Also Intensity Noise Source Predominance maps (I-NSP) are proposed, which add visualizations of noise exposure levels to NSP by coloring the polygons according to a color-scale. Both NSP and I-NSP are new visualization that would help understanding and assigning responsibilities for exceeding limits, but they also represent a valid support for locating the acoustic monitoring stations when required. As case studies, the maps are calculated in port areas, as they are large areas with a great variability of different types of noise sources and represent a smaller case than agglomeration, but with higher complexity.

The rapid habitual changes induced by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic first and the end of the most restrictive phase coinciding with the lock-down later resulted in significant changes, also occurred at an environmental level and, specifically, with regard to the perception of the soundscape in all European countries. The seek for knowledge underlying the research illustrated in this article concerned whether or not the perception of the soundscape following the almost normal resumption of daily activities had returned to that of the period before the restrictions came into force. This article illustrates how an online questionnaire structured in 16 questions was designed and administered to a sample of Italian citizens, in order to understand whether and how the habits of the respondents had changed in the three reference time periods (before the pandemic spread, the period marked by lock-down or other restrictions in early 2020 and the period afterwards) and their perception of the perceived soundscape of the place where they spend most of their days. A total of around 70 questionnaires distributed throughout Italy were collected and analysed. The results obtained, through the use of descriptive statistical analyses and logistic models, are also presented in this article.

This study presents the results of a traffic simulation analysis and emissions (greenhouse gas and noise) assessment comparing pre-pandemic (2019) and post-pandemic (2022) periods. The estimation of road traffic demand is based on conventional data sources and floating car data; next, the traffic simulation procedure was performed providing road network traffic volumes, which are the input for the emission models. The diffusion of teleworking, e-commerce, as well as the digitization of many processes, services and activities, lead to a significant change in urban mobility. Results show a significant though still not complete resumption of commuters travel activity (−10% compared to pre-pandemic period) in the morning peak-hour. This translates into an 11% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and a 0.1% increase in noise emissions.