Assessment of health impacts of noise pollution in the Tarkwa Mining Community of Ghana using noise mapping techniques

Objective Communities in the developing countries such as Ghana have little knowledge of effects of noise pollution on human health,which is demonstrated by their attitude towards this menace.This study assessed the health impacts of noise pollution and its spatial distribution in the Tarkwa Mining Community(TMC)of Ghana.Methods To achieve the study objective,questionnaires were administered;as well as collation of health data from major health centers in the study area.Noise levels were measured and noise map produced using geographic information system(GIS)techniques.Overlay maps of some diseases were done using overlay techniques in GIS.The noise exposure and corresponding noise doses for churches,working sites and social centers were also calculated using the respective formulae.Results The noise levels were found to be high above the prescribed Ghana Environmental Protection Agency(EPA)standards,with traffic noise levels ranging from 65.00 dBA to 98 dBA,while that of churches ranged from 73.10 dBA to 107.00 dBA and that of working sites from 74.4 dBA to 115.2 dBA.The calculated noise exposure and corresponding noise dose for churches ranged from 75.1 dBA to 104.6 dBA(i.e.,10%‒8000%),while that for workers’sites were from 75.8 dBA to 115 dBA(i.e.,12%‒90000%).Statistical regression and correlation analyses were done for diseases such as hypertension,ear problems and sleep disturbances.Conclusion The study has therefore revealed that the noise levels in the study area are very high and corresponding health impacts are prominent.Stakeholders and authorities should devise mitigating measures to combat this rising menace.The results revealed a strong positive correlation between noise and corresponding health impacts.Despite the positive correlation there are other causes and effects to the mentioned diseases.

Assessment of Indoor and Outdoor Noise Pollution at a University Hospital Based on Acoustic Measurements and Noise Mapping

This paper describes an analysis of the sound pressure levels at the exterior façade and inside the Hospital de Clínicas of the Federal University of Paraná. Measurements were taken at a total of 45 points, 24 at the exterior facade and 21 points inside the hospital on all the floors of the main building and in the maternity building. These 45 measurements were used to calculate the acoustic map of the hospital, which is located on General Carneiro Street, in the city of Curitiba, state of Paraná, Brazil. A comparison of the measured outdoor sound pressure levels against those established by Curitiba Municipal Law No. 10625 revealed that they all exceeded the daytime limit of 55 dB(A) permitted for areas around hospitals. The indoor sound pressure measurements and the noise levels for acoustic comfort established by the Brazilian technical standard ABNT NBR 10152 were compared, indicating that all the measured points, including those in the neonatal intensive care unit, exceeded the established limit of 35 dB(A) to 45 dB(A).

GPS-based noise mapping of Ahmedabad city

Noise mapping is an effective tool to measure noise.By noise mappingone can represent noise graphically.Noise mapping was carried out for Ahmedabad city.Data was collected at 633 different locations across the city.Latitude,longitude and real-time noise levels were noted at each location.ArcGIS software was used for creating noise maps and colour noise maps.The percentage of the city covered by the respective value of contour of noise was also found using the software,as well as the number of people in the city suffering from the respective levels of noise.Considering all the results,a multi-linear regression model was developed to predict noise,using SPSS statistics software.The developed model was analysed using an R^(2)test as well as a paired t-test.

Processing and Unification of Environmental Noise Data from Road Traffic with Spatial Dimension Collected through Mobile Phones

Noise measurement using mobile phones is now developed very well. While there are some good applications for the measurement of noise from road traffic, thus on processing of measured data is only paid a very little attention. The data, however, are burdened by specific errors and for further work with them it is necessary to adjust and determine their uncertainty. One of the biggest problems is inaccuracy in position versus the noise source and the shortest length of measurement that can be regarded as representative. Imprecision in terms of location can be determined by calculating the variance of possible distance from the noise source, which for measurement of traffic noise requires a map-matching data points both transverse to the street (sidewalk) network and in the longwise direction. During typical urban measurements, this error can even reach 7 - 10 dB. Three basic types of algorithms for the calculation of uncertainty and positional correction based on the type of input and output data (raster, vector, vector-oriented) were tested. Uncertainty in the variability of the measurement data is necessary to determine from the number of passing vehicles per time unit. The presented solutions are implemented in the Mobile Noise system.

Evaluation of Environmental Sound Pressure Level,Drawing of Noise-Isosonic Map Using Surfer V.19,and Prioritization of Engineering Noise Control Methods Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP):A Field Study in CGS Stations

Noise pollution is one of the most significant harmful physical factors in the industrial and occupational environments.Due to the high costs of exposure to excessive noise;continuous sound evaluation,propose and implement noise control plans in occupational environments is necessary.Thus,the present study aimed to review environmental sound measurements,drawing of noise maps,and prioritizing the engineering noise control methods using the Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP).This study was a descriptive-analytical study that aimed to assess occupational noises and present a control plan in the City Gas Stations(CGSs)of Kerman,Iran in 2021.The present study was done in two phases.In the first phase,six CGSs were investigated to measure and evaluate the noise.In addition,the noise map of a CGS was drawn using the Surfer software.Finally,the AHP was used in the second phase of the research to prioritize the control measures.In this phase,four criteria and ten alternatives were identified.According to first phase results,the sound pressure level(SPL)of the stations varied from 76 to 98 dBA.Besides,the majority of the studied stations had a sound level higher than 85 dBA(danger zone).The second phase of the study showed that out of the four evaluated criteria,the executability criterion had the highest impact and the cost criterion had the lowest impact on the selection of control measures with a weight of 0.587 and 0.052,respectively.Based on the results of prioritization of the alternatives,using a silenced regulator(weight of 0.223)and increasing the thickness of the tube(weight of 0.023)had the highest and lowest priorities among the alternatives,respectively.The use of engineering noise control methods such as using silenced regulators was the best way to control the noises of CGSs.Additionally;it is noteworthy that AHP is a practical method for prioritizing alternatives to achieve the most accurate decision-making.The results of AHP can be of great help to health and safety experts and managers in choosing the sound engineering control measures more precisely.

Acoustic contamination assessment during the transition between the COVID-19 restrictions and reactivation:A exploratory analysis in Guayaquil

Noise pollution is becoming a critical health risk for city life.In 2020,the COVID-19 pandemic forced many cities to implement several mobility restrictions.These restrictions changed human activity patterns and decreased the noise levels and noise pollution that often affect urban settings.As the number of infections decreased,so did the outdoor activities,influencing the population’s perception of noise.This paper aims to evaluate the changes in noise levels associated with mobility restrictions between 2020 and 2021 in Guayaquil,Ecuador.This study used crowdsourcing with the help of smartphones and mobile applications to collect geo-referenced environmental noise data.The data was used to generate noise maps in different time frames.Finally,noise level maps were created using GIS-based tools to identify the urban areas that experienced the highest noise level variation during the study period.The results show that the most significant noise increase occurred at night.Furthermore,when analyzing noise level changes in different urban areas,the western area of Guayaquil was the one that experienced the most significant noise level variation.Findings inform the perception of noise pollution and could potentially serve as a reference for decision-makers during the proposal of public policies that ensure a better quality of life for its citizens.

A new procedure for exploring chaotic attractors in nonlinear dynamical systems under random excitations

Due to uncertain push-pull action across boundaries between different attractive domains by random excitations, attractors of a dynamical system will drift in the phase space, which readily leads to colliding and mixing with each other, so it is very difficult to identify irregular signals evolving from arbitrary initial states. Here, periodic attractors from the simple cell mapping method are further iterated by a specific Poincare map in order to observe more elaborate structures and drifts as well as possible dynamical bifurcations. The panorama of a chaotic attractor can also be displayed to a great extent by this newly developed procedure. From the positions and the variations of attractors in the phase space, the action mechanism of bounded noise excitation is studied in detail. Several numerical examples are employed to illustrate the present procedure. It is seen that the dynamical identification and the bifurcation analysis can be effectively performed by this procedure.

Super-Resolution Image Reconstruction Based on an Improved Maximum a Posteriori Algorithm

A maximum a posteriori（ MAP） algorithm is proposed to improve the accuracy of super resolution（ SR） reconstruction in traditional methods. The algorithm applies both joints image registration and SR reconstruction in the framework,but separates them in the process of iteratiion. Firstly,we estimate the shifting parameters through two lowresolution（ LR） images and use the parameters to reconstruct initial HR images. Then,we update the shifting parameters using HR images. The aforementioned steps are repeated until the ideal HR images are obtained. The metrics such as PSNR and SSIM are used to fully evaluate the quality of the reconstructed image. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method can enhance image resolution efficiently.