Effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on background noise levels in Italian strong motion network

Abstract

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Italy has been majorly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The government declared a full lockdown and limited human and commercial activities to keep the pandemic under control. The limited human activity reduced the spread of the virus and the cultural noise it created. The effect of the lockdown is detected by the Italian strong motion network, which covers the entire country with their stations mostly located in the settlements. To assess the effect of the lockdown, background noise information up to 1 s from 2022 is used as a comparison. It is found that the background noise levels dropped around 1.46 dB during the lockdown, with a nationwide reduction in almost all of the stations. Noise levels have dropped both in the daytime and nighttime during the lockdown, with a more significant noise drop during the nighttime, which can be linked to the ban on dining in restaurants and bars and the curfew. A similar trend is found in weekday and weekend comparisons; in both time ranges, 2022 was noisier regarding the lockdown period. Stations located in public spaces such as schools and city halls observed noise reduction of up to 7.99 dB, and this noise level reduction is visible in major cities. We analyzed the 10 most populated Italian cities and their surroundings and found noise reduction of up to 5.5 and 2.1 dB in the median.

Keywords

• seismic noise
• COVID-19 lockdown
• anthropogenic seismic noise
• seismic monitoring
• seismic network