Environmental Urban Noise

2003 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 1199-1199
Author(s):  
Daniel R. Raichel
Keyword(s):  
Urban Noise

Effects of urban noise variability on cognitive abilities in indoor spaces: Gender differences

2021 ◽  
pp. 095745652110307
Author(s):  
Massimiliano Masullo ◽  
Gennaro Ruggiero ◽  
Daniel Alvarez Fernandez ◽  
Tina Iachini ◽  
Luigi Maffei
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Verbal Memory ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Domain ◽  
Cognitive Tasks ◽  
Indoor Environments ◽  
Urban Noise ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Open Window ◽  
Indoor Spaces

Previous evidence has shown that exposure to urban noise negatively influences some cognitive abilities (i.e. verbal fluency and delayed recall of prose memory) of people in indoor spaces. However, long-standing literature in the cognitive domain has reported that men and women can show different performance on cognitive tasks. Here, we aimed to investigate if and how different patterns of perceived urban noises in indoor environments could affect male and female participants’ cognitive abilities. Ambisonic sound recordings representing scenarios with varying noise patterns (low, medium and high variability) were acquired with an open window at three dwellings in a southern Italian city. As a control condition, the recordings were caught inside a quiet room. While exposed to theses four auditory conditions, participants had to perform cognitive tasks assessing free verbal memory recall, auditory–verbal recognition and working memory. The results show that male and female participants have a different tolerance to noise patterns. Women overperform men on verbal tasks, while the contrary effect emerges with men outperforming women on visuospatial working memory tasks.

Approaches to Urban Noise Management in India

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neelima S. Naik
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Environmental Concern ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Noise Levels ◽  
Urban Noise ◽  
Master Plans ◽  
The Past ◽  
Metropolitan Cities

Noise pollution in urban areas is recognized as a major environmental concern in India. The lack of infrastructure and fast paced life in major metropolitan cities of India has made the urban environment extremely crowded, busy as well as noisy and as a result the millions of people living in the major metropolitan areas are suffering from the impacts of noise pollution. Noise levels are escalating at such a rate that it has become a major threat to the quality of human lives. Direct links between noise and health have been established by research conducted over the past few decades. There are several causes for urban degradation such as population migration, environmental considerations not adequately being incorporated into master plans, uncoordinated and haphazard development, weak implementation of plans and laws and inadequate institutional competences and resource crunch. This paper discusses the causal factors, impacts and the different approaches adopted by the Central Government as well as some major State Pollution Control Boards to curb the urban noise problem and the need for looking into non-conventional solutions such as Ecocity programme to bring in visible environmental improvement.

scholarly journals Estimation of Spatial Variations in Urban Noise Levels with a Land Use Regression Model

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Goudreau ◽  
Céline Plante ◽  
Michel Fournier ◽  
Allan Brand ◽  
Yann Roche ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Regression Model ◽  
Spatial Variations ◽  
Noise Levels ◽  
Land Use Regression ◽  
Urban Noise

scholarly journals Experimental evidence for real-time song frequency shift in response to urban noise in a passerine bird

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 320-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eira Bermúdez-Cuamatzin ◽  
Alejandro A. Ríos-Chelén ◽  
Diego Gil ◽  
Constantino Macías Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Frequency Shift ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Passerine Bird ◽  
Urban Noise ◽  
Song Frequency

Monitoring the Reaction and Response of People to Urban Noise

2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Popescu ◽  
Iuliana Moholea
Keyword(s):  
Living Environment ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
Urban Noise ◽  
Acoustic Environment ◽  
Exposed Population ◽  
Local Patterns ◽  
Specific Reactions ◽  
Area Planning ◽  
Proper Solutions ◽  
Noise Map

AbstractAn important aspect in assessing noise in urban agglomerations is the subjective one, which takes into account the sensitivity and specific reactions of residents to the noise in their living environment. This paper presents results of a sociological study initiated to determine the population awareness, regarding the urban acoustic environment and estimation of effects and disturbance. The survey was conducted in a Romanian city, to complement the information provided by the strategic noise map of the area. This approach allows the estimation of specific local patterns of reaction and response to urban noise of the exposed population and provides the information, needed to develop action plans and to set proper solutions for urban area planning.

scholarly journals Learning to cope: vocal adjustment to urban noise is correlated with prior experience in black-capped chickadees

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1833) ◽  
pp. 20161058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie E. LaZerte ◽  
Hans Slabbekoorn ◽  
Ken A. Otter
Keyword(s):  
Ambient Noise ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
Traffic Noise ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Previous Exposure ◽  
Poecile Atricapillus ◽  
Urban Noise ◽  
Experimental Noise ◽  
Avian Communication ◽  
The City

Urban noise can interfere with avian communication through masking, but birds can reduce this interference by altering their vocalizations. Although several experimental studies indicate that birds can rapidly change their vocalizations in response to sudden increases in ambient noise, none have investigated whether this is a learned response that depends on previous exposure. Black-capped chickadees ( Poecile atricapillus ) change the frequency of their songs in response to both fluctuating traffic noise and experimental noise. We investigated whether these responses to fluctuating noise depend on familiarity with noise. We confirmed that males in noisy areas sang higher-frequency songs than those in quiet areas, but found that only males in already-noisy territories shifted songs upwards in immediate response to experimental noise. Unexpectedly, males in more quiet territories shifted songs downwards in response to experimental noise. These results suggest that chickadees may require prior experience with fluctuating noise to adjust vocalizations in such a way as to minimize masking. Thus, learning to cope may be an important part of adjusting to acoustic life in the city.

Urban Noise Inference Model Based on Multiple Views and Kernel Tensor Decomposition

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150027
Author(s):  
Junlan Nie ◽  
Ruibo Gao ◽  
Ye Kang
Keyword(s):  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Tensor Decomposition ◽  
Prediction Algorithm ◽  
Kernel Matrix ◽  
Multiple Views ◽  
Tensor Factorization ◽  
Urban Noise ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Factorization Model ◽  
Kernel Distance

Prediction of urban noise is becoming more significant for tackling noise pollution and protecting human mental health. However, the existing noise prediction algorithms neglected not only the correlation between noise regions, but also the nonlinearity and sparsity of the data, which resulted in low accuracy of filling in the missing entries of data. In this paper, we propose a model based on multiple views and kernel-matrix tensor decomposition to predict the noise situation at different times of day in each region. We first construct a kernel tensor decomposition model by using kernel mapping in order to speed decomposition rate and realize stable estimate the prediction system. Then, we analyze and compute the cause of the noise from multiple views including computing the similarity of regions and the correlation between noise categories by kernel distance, which improves the credibility to infer the noise situation and the categories of regions. Finally, we devise a prediction algorithm based on the kernel-matrix tensor factorization model. We evaluate our method with a real dataset, and the experiments to verify the advantages of our method compared with other existing baselines.

scholarly journals Are signals of aggressive intent less honest in urban habitats?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Çağlar Akçay ◽  
Michelle L Beck ◽  
Kendra B Sewall
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Noise ◽  
Visual Signals ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Urban Habitats ◽  
Urban Birds ◽  
Urban Noise ◽  
Song Sparrows ◽  
Soft Song ◽  
Close Range ◽  
Low Amplitude

Abstract How anthropogenic change affects animal social behavior, including communication is an important question. Urban noise often drives shifts in acoustic properties of signals but the consequences of noise for the honesty of signals—that is, how well they predict signaler behavior—is unclear. Here we examine whether honesty of aggressive signaling is compromised in male urban song sparrows (Melospiza melodia). Song sparrows have two honest close-range signals: the low amplitude soft songs (an acoustic signal) and wing waves (a visual signal), but whether the honesty of these signals is affected by urbanization has not been examined. If soft songs are less effective in urban noise, we predict that they should predict attacks less reliably in urban habitats compared to rural habitats. We confirmed earlier findings that urban birds were more aggressive than rural birds and found that acoustic noise was higher in urban habitats. Urban birds still sang more soft songs than rural birds. High rates of soft songs and low rates of loud songs predicted attacks in both habitats. Thus, while urbanization has a significant effect on aggressive behaviors, it might have a limited effect on the overall honesty of aggressive signals in song sparrows. We also found evidence for a multimodal shift: urban birds tended to give proportionally more wing waves than soft songs than rural birds, although whether that shift is due to noise-dependent plasticity is unclear. These findings encourage further experimental study of the specific variables that are responsible for behavioral change due to urbanization. Soft song, the low amplitude songs given in close range interactions, is an honest threat signal in urban song sparrows. Given its low amplitude, soft songs may be a less effective signal in noisy urban habitats. However, we found that soft song remained an honest signal predicting attack in urban habitats. We also found that birds may use more visual signals (rapid fluttering of wings) in urban habitats to avoid masking from acoustic noise.

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