Community Response to Noise from Hot-Spots at a Major Road in Quito (Ecuador) and Its Application for Identification and Ranking These Areas.

Virginia Puyana-Romero,Luis Bravo-Moncayo,Jose Luis Cueto,Giuseppe Ciaburro,Ricardo Hernandez-Molina

doi:10.3390/ijerph19031115

Abstract

Environmental legislation in Ecuador is advancing with the legitimate aspiration of providing citizens with new standards of quality and environmental health. In the context of environmental noise, these legislative advances are based on the experience accumulated in other countries, which is an advantage that must be managed with caution by incorporating local factors into noise management procedures. This study advances two lines of work. The first is to survey the population about their attitude towards noise from a major road to try to detect local factors in the annoyance and sleep disturbances. The second uses this information to compare noise indicators for the detection and ranking of hot-spots from major roads. The interviewees exhibited a high level of annoyance and sleep disturbance due to noise compared with the results of other studies. Results show that there are small differences in the definition of hot-spots when using WHO’s dose–response curves for Lden ≥ 68 dB for and for Lnight ≥ 58 dB, in comparison with the curves generated in this study (CS). Regarding the application of both dose–response curves (WHO vs. CS) to the estimation of the population at risk of the harmful effect of nighttime traffic noise (HSD), small oscillations are also observed even when Lnight ≥ 58 dB and Lnoche ≥ 60 dB are used.

Highlights

The noise maps fulfill the function of diagnosing environmental acoustic quality throughout the city, but the process will not be closed until the action plans against noise are carried out
This subsection includes a brief statistical analysis of the responses given to the questionnaire, the calculation of the dose–response curves for the study area, and the comparison of the dose–response curves of our study with the ones of the World Health Organization (WHO)
Whether there is a deviation between the dose–response indicators proposed by European regulations regarding the local dose–response curves estimated in this research from the study area of Quito; To examine the impact that the use of reference time intervals (END vs. National), in combination with the use of dose-response curves (WHO vs. Case Study), may have on global estimates of the number of people exposed to noise in the study area

Summary

Introduction

The noise maps fulfill the function of diagnosing environmental acoustic quality throughout the city, but the process will not be closed until the action plans against noise are carried out. It is important that these first action plans are perceived as effective by citizens, and the correct identification of noise problems is essential for the suitable management of noise environmental health. In Ecuador, in the first round of noise mapping in an agglomeration of more than 250,000 inhabitants, only the main road network has to be considered [1] in the evaluation of traffic noise. Road traffic noise may not be the source of noise that raises the most complaints from citizens, but its extent makes it the main source of noise pollution, causing a significant impact on human health. Various research studies have shown that exposure to environmental noise poses a significant risk to physical and

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