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

Abstract

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.

Keywords

• Acoustic contamination
• Crowdsourcing
• Data scrubbing
• Kriging
• Noise map