Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic caused lockdowns in many countries worldwide. Acousticians have made surveys to monitor how cities became quieter under the lockdown, mainly in central areas in cities. However, there have been few studies on the changes in the acoustic environment due to the pandemic in the usually quieter residential areas. It may be expected to be different from the effect in 'originally noisy' areas. Also, the effect could be different in Japan, because the 'state of emergency' declaration there was different to lockdowns elsewhere. Considering these circumstances, this article reports the results of noise monitoring and makes some observations on the acoustic environment in residential areas far from city centres, to provide an example of how the acoustic environment was affected by the state of emergency declaration due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. The results showed that the reduction of noise levels was somewhat less than that reported in large cities. Also, comparing the results after the cancellation of the state of emergency, the noise level increased again. However, observations of noise sources imply that a possible change in human behaviour may have also affected the acoustic environment.
Highlights
On 16 January 2020, the first Japanese person infected with coronavirus (COVID-19) was discovered and the case was reported in newspapers a few days later [1]
The results obtained by this short duration will not be suitable to compare with the data obtained by other authors, for example, Asensio et al [13], it is considered useful for the purpose of this work, which is limited to understanding the acoustic environment of this particular area
Some observations were made on the effect of the state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan on the acoustic environment in a rather quiet residential area
Summary
On 16 January 2020, the first Japanese person infected with coronavirus (COVID-19) was discovered and the case was reported in newspapers a few days later [1]. A detailed accuracy check was not performed, it was decided to use the NoiseCapture app (for Android only) for this work, as it has the advantage of being able to record both GPS data of measured points and perceived noise source. The app on this device was calibrated using a Class 1 SLM before the laboratory closed due to the state of emergency. The results obtained by this short duration will not be suitable to compare with the data obtained by other authors, for example, Asensio et al [13], it is considered useful for the purpose of this work, which is limited to understanding the acoustic environment of this particular area
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