Indoor soundscapes at home during the COVID-19 lockdown in London – Part I: Associations between the perception of the acoustic environment, occupantś activity and well-being

As part of the Agence Nationale de Recherche Caractérisation des ENvironnements SonorEs urbains (Characterization of urban sound environments) project, a questionnaire was sent in January 2019 to households in a 1 km2 study area in the city of Lorient, France, to which about 318 responded. The main objective of this questionnaire was to collect information about the inhabitants' perception of the sound environments in their neighborhoods, streets, and dwellings. In the same study area, starting mid-2019, about 70 sensors were continuously positioned, and 15 of them were selected for testing sound source recognition models. The French lockdown due to the COVID-19 crisis occurred during the project, and the opportunity was taken to send a second questionnaire during April 2020. About 31 of the first 318 first survey respondents answered this second questionnaire. This unique longitudinal dataset, both physical and perceptual, allows the undertaking of an analysis from different perspectives of such a period. The analysis reveals the importance of integrating source recognition tools, soundscape observation protocol, in addition to physical level analysis, to accurately describe the changes in the sound environment.

https://asa.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1121/10.0009324

Multidimensional analyses of the noise impacts of COVID-19 lockdown

The pandemic has impacted every facet of our life, society, and environment. It has also affected both the requirement and challenges for acoustic research and applications. The present article attempts to present a summary of the impact of COVID-19 on several aspects of acoustics, from the changes in the sonic environment due to reduced human and industrial activities to natural ventilation requirements for mitigating the transmission of coronavirus while mitigating noise, and, more importantly, discusses the potential impacts and challenges for acoustics in the post-COVID-19 era. The present study specifically examines the effects of COVID-19 on the sonic environment, the acoustic treatment by considering the need for constant disinfection, the noise control on construction and neighborhood activities in response to an increased number of people working from home, and the need for having natural ventilation while mitigating noise at home and offices.

https://www.mdpi.com/2624-599X/3/3/33/pdf

Perspectives on the Sonic Environment and Noise Mitigations during the COVID-19 Pandemic Era

In this work, the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the environmental noise generated by the air traffic at the Hannover Airport, Germany, is assessed. For this purpose, a comparative study of the air traffic noise in the years 2019 and 2020 is conducted by means of publicly available measurement data and computational simulations. Based on environmental noise directives defined by the responsible German authorities, the comparative study is conducted in terms of A-weighted equivalent sound pressure level metrics computed for the six months of the forecast years with the largest number of flights. In comparison with the year of 2019, the measurement data indicates that the L ,   L, and L were reduced in average by 2.4, 4.2, and 3.7 dBA, respectively, in the year 2020. Furthermore, the results based on the computational simulations show that the isocontour areas of the L = 60   dBA and L = 55   dBA noise protection zones defined by the German federal government were reduced by ≈ 40.29 % and ≈ 54.08 %, respectively, in the year of 2020.

The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the air traffic noise at the Hannover airport region.

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the lockdown events and policies that followed, led to significant changes in the built environment and how it is experienced by people and communities. Among those, variations in the acoustic environments were some of the most noticeable in cities. This study investigated the relationships between the perception of the acoustic environment (i.e., soundscape) and different personal factors such as attitudes towards the pandemic and noise sensitivity, by performing a survey with 109 participants in an urban green public space in Antwerp (Belgium), shortly after most restrictions issued by the government were lifted in September 2020 when the first contamination wave ended. While preliminary in nature, the results of this data collection campaign show that people actively changing their behaviors (using less public transport or cycling more) assessed the soundscapes as less vibrant/exciting. People who were more concerned about the pandemic tended to notice more natural sounds and noise from traffic on nearby local roads. This same subset also put a bigger importance on the environmental quality of the public space than in the pre-pandemic period. Noise sensitivity also played a role, as an association was found between more-than-average noise sensitive persons and those more worried regarding the pandemic. Overall, the findings of this study confirm that at least part of the people have started to perceive the public space, including its soundscape, differently since the start of the pandemic.

Associations between Personal Attitudes towards COVID-19 and Public Space Soundscape Assessment: An Example from Antwerp, Belgium

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly modified the behavior of societies. The application of isolation measures during the crisis resulted in changes in the acoustic environment. The aim of this work was to characterize the perception of the acoustic environment during the COVID-19 lockdown of people residing in Argentina in 2020. A descriptive cross-sectional correlational study was carried out. A virtual survey was conducted from April 14 to 26, 2020, and was answered mainly by social network users. During this period, Argentina was in a strict lockdown. The sample was finally composed of 1371 people between 18 and 79 years old. It was observed that most of the participants preferred the new acoustic environment. Mainly in the larger cities, before the isolation, mechanical sounds predominated, accompanied by the perception of irritation. Confinement brought a decrease in mechanical sounds and an increase in biological sounds, associated with feelings of tranquility and happiness. The time window opened by the lockdown offered an interesting scenario to assess the effect of anthropogenic noise pollution on the urban environment. This result offers a subjective approach, which contributes to understanding the link between individuals and communities with the environment.

Perception of the acoustic environment during COVID-19 lockdown in Argentina.

El Sistema Eferente Medial (SEM) se encuentra conformado por fibras originadas en tronco cerebral que descienden principalmente a la coclea contralateral. Su funcionamiento puede evaluarse aplicando la Supresion Contralateral (SC) de Otoemisiones Acusticas Producto de Distorsion (OEAPD), analizando las OEAPD sin Estimulacion Acustica Contralateral (EAC) y luego con EAC. El buen funcionamiento del SEM evidencia valores menores en la amplitud con EAC produciendose el efecto supresor. El objetivo fue comparar las amplitudes de la SC de OEAPD en dos grupos de adolescentes, uno con respuestas presentes normales (grupo 1) y otro con respuestas presentes pero anormales (grupo 2). El diseno fue descriptivo correlacional transversal. La muestra fue de 53 adolescentes voluntarios de 14/15 anos de Cordoba con umbrales auditivos menores o iguales a 21 dB PA en 250 a 16000 Hz; timpanometria sin alteraciones y; OEAPD con respuestas presentes, considerando la Relacion Senal Ruido (RSR) menor o igual a 6 dB NPS en al menos 4 de 7 frecuencias. En las OEAPD se utilizo: formula 2f1-f2, relacion 1,22 y L1=L2 (70 dB NPS). La EAC fue ruido blanco de audiometro a 50 dB. Se clasificaron los adolescentes en grupo 1: amplitud mayor o igual a 0 dB NPS y RSR mayor o igual a 6 dB NPS en todas las frecuencias y; grupo 2: amplitud menor a 0 dB en al menos una frecuencia y/o RSR menor a 6 dB en una, dos o tres frecuencias. En el analisis, el grupo 2 presento amplitudes menores en todas las frecuencias en ambas condiciones, sin y con EAC. En los dos grupos se observo predominancia de efecto supresor, sin embargo fue mayor en el grupo 1 en todas las frecuencias de ambos oidos. Las diferencias encontradas podrian ser indicadores subclinicos orientativos del funcionamiento del SEM.

/pdf/supresion-contralateral-de-otoemisiones-acusticas-producto-19jek04jdd.pdf

Sara Gaetán

Papers

Perception of the acoustic environment during COVID-19 lockdown in Argentina.

Supresión Contralateral de Otoemisiones Acústicas Producto de Distorsión en Adolescentes con Audición Normal