Noise Disturbances and Calls for Police Service in València (Spain): A Logistic Model with Spatial and Temporal Effects

Lia Seguí,Adina Iftimi,Álvaro Briz-Redón,Francisco Montes,Lucía Martínez-Garay

doi:10.3390/ijerph16162815

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the presence of spatial and temporal effects on the calls for noise disturbance service reported to the Local Police of València (Spain) in the time period from 2014 to 2015, and investigate how some socio-demographic and environmental variables affect the noise phenomenon. The analysis is performed at the level of València’s boroughs. It has been carried out using a logistic model after dichotomization of the noise incidence variable. The spatial effects consider first- and second-order neighbors. The temporal effects are included in the model by means of one- and two-week temporal lags. Our model confirms the presence of strong spatio-temporal effects. We also find significant associations between noise incidence and specific age groups, socio-economic status, land uses, and recreational activities, among other variables. The results suggest that there is a problem of "social" noise in València that is not exclusively a consequence of coexistence between local residents. External factors such as the increasing number of people on the streets during weekend nights or during summer months severely increase the chances of expecting a noise incident.

Highlights

Sustained exposure to noise has been identified as a factor that can cause both auditory and non-auditory health effects [1]
The current study aims to add to the knowledge of the “social” noise problem in two ways: (1) exploring the presence of spatial and temporal effects on the calls for service related to noise disturbances that were reported to the Local Police of València (Spain) in the period 2014–15 and
The results confirm the main hypotheses set out in the research: the existence of spatio-temporal effects on noise calls and the influence that certain variables representing some characteristics of the boroughs of València have on the phenomenon

Summary

Introduction

Sustained exposure to noise has been identified as a factor that can cause both auditory and non-auditory health effects [1]. One of the challenges that modern European cities face is environmental noise, as has recently been pointed out by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe: “Noise is an important public health issue. It has negative impacts on human health and well-being and is a growing concern.” [9]. The first noise-abatement actions essentially consisted of legislation fixing maximum sound levels and technological progress: vehicles, airplanes, and machines had to comply with noise limits at the time of manufacture [10] This policy could not solve completely the noise problem since the growth of road, rail, and air traffic were partly offsetting the technological improvements. This situation led to the enactment of the Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council whose aims were (1) “to define a common approach intended to avoid, prevent or reduce on a prioritized basis the harmful

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