Useful tools for integrating noise maps about noises other than those of transport, infrastructures, and industrial plants in developing countries: Casework of the Aburra Valley, Colombia

Abstract

The behavior of environmental noise in developing countries is conditioned by characteristics that are not only linked to transport, infrastructures, and industrial plants in the annuity (common representation in noise maps), but also to other types of sources and periodicities that can influence significantly in noise levels. For this reason, this work proposes different temporal analyzes during the annuity that can be linked to the noisy activities typical of developing tropical countries. To do this, a noise monitoring network composed of seven monitors representing different sources present in the Aburrá Valley (AV) in Colombia is analyzed with measurements of LAeq, every hour, in a period between August 2016 and July 2019. The results show that AV noise is strongly influenced by leisure activities related to high-power sound systems, different celebrations, and continuous noise from car traffic that affect the population mainly on weekends and nights. This work marks a clear path to precisely address noise pollution in the action plans of developing countries.

Keywords: Action plans; Developing countries; Environmental noise; Leisure noise; Noise-monitoring network; Traffic noise.