Abstract
Noise pollution can cause increased stress, cognitive impairment and illness in humans and decreased fitness and altered behavior in wildlife. Maps of noise pollution are used to visualize the distribution of noise across a landscape. These maps are typically created by taking a relatively small number of sound measurements or simulated on the basis of theoretical models. However, smartphones with inexpensive sound measuring apps can be used to monitor noise and create dense maps of real-world noise measurements. Public concern with noise can make monitoring noise pollution with smartphones an engaging and educational citizen science activity. We demonstrate a method utilizing single-day citizen science noise mapping events and a university lab to collect noise data in urban environments and protected areas. Using this approach, we collected hundreds of noise measurements with participants that we used to create noise maps. We found this method was successful in engaging volunteers and students and producing usable noise data. The described methodology has potential applications for biological research, citizen science engagement, and teaching.
Highlights
Noise pollution, or unwanted and disturbing sound, is a pervasive feature of modern life [1]
Across the three citizen science events, we collected a total of 1418 usable observations of noise levels, which we used to generate maps of noise pollution at each location (Fig 3)
We find that our approach of using smartphones to monitor and map noise pollution was successful in engaging citizen scientists and creating noise maps
Summary
Unwanted and disturbing sound, is a pervasive feature of modern life [1]. Noise pollution is surprisingly common in protected areas, national parks, and rural areas, where it affects both humans and wildlife [3,4,5,6,7]. The impacts of noise pollution have been well studied in the fields of public health and biology. Birds, and other animals, noise pollution can interfere with communication, vigilance, and foraging, which in turn can negatively affect fitness and compel individuals to leave a location [8,9,10,11].
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