Institute for Urban Public Health, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg-Essen, Hufelandstraße 55, 45147 Essen, Germany.
Department of Landscape Ecology and Landscape Planning, School of Spatial Planning, TU Dortmund University, August-Schmidt-Straße 10, 44227 Dortmund, Germany.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 27;18(9):4653. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18094653.
A major source of noise pollution is traffic. In Germany, the SARS-CoV-2 lockdown caused a substantial decrease in mobility, possibly affecting noise levels. The aim is to analyze the effects of the lockdown measures on noise levels in the densely populated Ruhr Area. We focus on the analysis of noise levels before and during lockdown considering different land use types, weekdays, and time of day.
We used data from 22 automatic sound devices of the SALVE (Acoustic Quality and Health in Urban Environments) project, running since 2019 in Bochum, Germany. We performed a pre/during lockdown comparison of A-weighted equivalent continuous sound pressure levels. The study period includes five weeks before and five weeks during the SARS-CoV-2 induced administrative lockdown measures starting on 16 March 2020. We stratified our data by land use category (LUC), days of the week, and daytime.
We observed highest noise levels pre-lockdown in the 'main street' and 'commercial areas' (68.4 ± 6.7 dB resp. 61.0 ± 8.0 dB), while in 'urban forests' they were lowest (50.9 ± 6.6 dB). A distinct mean overall noise reduction of 5.1 dB took place, with noise reductions occurring in each LUC. However, the magnitude of noise levels differed considerably between the categories. Weakest noise reductions were found in the 'main street' (3.9 dB), and strongest in the 'urban forest', 'green space', and 'residential area' (5.9 dB each).
Our results are in line with studies from European cities. Strikingly, all studies report noise reductions of about 5 dB. Aiming at a transformation to a health-promoting urban mobility can be a promising approach to mitigating health risks of noise in cities. Overall, the experiences currently generated by the pandemic offer data for best practices and policies for the development of healthy urban transportation-the effects of a lower traffic and more tranquil world were experienced firsthand by people during this time.
交通是噪声污染的主要来源。在德国，SARS-CoV-2 封锁导致流动性大幅减少，可能会影响噪声水平。目的是分析封锁措施对人口密集的鲁尔区噪声水平的影响。我们专注于分析封锁前后不同土地利用类型、工作日和一天中的时间的噪声水平。
我们使用了自 2019 年以来在德国波鸿运行的 SALVE（城市环境中的声音质量和健康）项目的 22 个自动声音设备的数据。我们对 A 加权等效连续声压级进行了封锁前后的比较。研究期间包括 2020 年 3 月 16 日开始的 SARS-CoV-2 引发的行政封锁措施之前的五周和之后的五周。我们根据土地利用类别（LUC）、一周中的天数和白天对数据进行分层。
我们观察到，在封锁前，“主要街道”和“商业区”的噪声水平最高（分别为 68.4 ± 6.7 dB 和 61.0 ± 8.0 dB），而在“城市森林”中则最低（50.9 ± 6.6 dB）。整体噪声平均降低了 5.1 dB，每个 LUC 都发生了噪声降低。然而，不同类别之间的噪声水平差异很大。“主要街道”的噪声降低幅度最小（3.9 dB），而“城市森林”、“绿地”和“住宅区”的噪声降低幅度最大（各为 5.9 dB）。
我们的结果与欧洲城市的研究一致。引人注目的是，所有研究都报告了约 5 dB 的噪声降低。旨在向促进健康的城市交通转变，可以成为减轻城市噪声健康风险的一种有前途的方法。总的来说，目前由大流行产生的经验为发展健康城市交通的最佳实践和政策提供了数据——在这段时间里，人们亲身体验了交通减少和更加宁静的世界的影响。
