Abstract
Environmental noise can cause auditory and non-auditory adverse effects. To identify daily environmental noise patterns in two urban sites of Metropolitan Santiago. Continuous measurements of environmental noise in two sites of Metropolitan Santiago were analyzed by means of hierarchical cluster analysis. One site was a main street with heavy traffic and the second was a street from a neighborhood with intense nocturnal activity. The first phase of analysis consisted of clustering noise profiles with similar shapes according to the average linkage method, with correlation as the similarity measure. The second phase grouped the profiles with similar shapes into sub-clusters that also had similar absolute noise levels, using the complete linkage method, with absolute distance as the similarity measure. Two noise patterns were identified for the first site, one for weekdays (Monday to Friday) and another for weekends (Saturday and Sunday). For the second site five different patterns were identified (Monday to Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). Also different patterns appeared for summer compared to the rest of the year. The noise levels of both sites were high. The detected noise levels can be annoying, cause sleep disturbances and increase the risk for hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, among other effects.
Highlights
Environmental noise can cause both auditory and non-auditory health effects
We studied daily noise patterns in two urban sites from Santiago, Chile, by means of hierarchical cluster analysis
Clustering by noise level Fig. S2b shows the dendrogram produced by the Phase 2
Summary
Environmental noise can cause both auditory and non-auditory health effects. Aim: To identify daily environmental noise patterns in two urban sites of Metropolitan Santiago. Material and Methods: Continuous measurements of environmental noise in two sites of Metropolitan Santiago were analyzed by means of hierarchical cluster analysis. The second phase grouped the profiles with similar shapes into sub-clusters that had similar absolute noise levels, using the complete linkage method, with absolute distance as the similarity measure. Results: Two noise patterns were identified for the first site, one for weekdays (Monday to Friday) and another for weekends (Saturday and Sunday). For the second site five different patterns were identified (Monday to Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). Conclusions: The detected noise levels can be annoying, cause sleep disturbances and increase the risk for hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, among other effects
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