Although most people are aware of noise damage, few are concerned about its effects
By Jin Zhu
Since last July, Shenzhen and Beijing have been publishing city noise maps. Although they only include a limited slice of each city, they represent a bold new step to combat what could become an ear-splitting problem.
Offending decibels
The city’s first map of a 12.7-square-kilometer block of Haidian District revealed how various urban districts are plagued by noise pollution. It was unveiledby the Beijing Municipal Institute of Labor Protection last month.
“The current noise pollution comes mainly from traffic. Engineers created this sample map to reflect the noise of road traffic as as starting point,”u Wencheng, a lead engineer at the institute, said.
The map depicts an area bounded by Xizhimen and Deshengmen in the south and Jianxiangqiao and Xueyuanqiao in the north. The area includes almost every kind of road: speedway, arterial road and express lanes.
The sample illustrates levels of noise pollution with different colors. In areas along the sides of the speedway, coded in blue, noise reaches 75 or more decibels. The sides of the main roads marked in red and purple hover around 70 decibels. In residential communities, coded in green and yellow, the noise ranges from 40 to 45 decibels.
Hu said the institute has been mapping urban noise since 2006. The city was divided into several parts and monitored by standing in the center of each for 10 minutes. “It was only a rough average, but the city registered 69 or more decibels everywhere. That was not precise enough,” said.
