Noise Pollution Analysis for year 2016-17 in Pune City

Abstract

The rapid urbanization and growth of urban population has led to many health challenges including the environmental air and noise pollution. Here we analyze the data on noise levels in dB(A) Leq during day time (6 am to 10 pm) collected at 36 different locations in Pune city. The dataset is available on the Pune municipal Corporation Open data Portal[4]. The 36 locations are classified in four different zones named as commercial zone, residential zone, silence zone, and industrial zone. Data is collected on specific days of each month from April 2016 to March 2017. The main objective of this analysis is to locate the areas having noise levels higher than specified safe dB and to predict the average noise level in upcoming months.By using statistical tools we establish that in almost all the areas, the noise levels are beyond the safe noise level specified by the pollution control board. Specifically, areas like RTO, KK market, Rajaram Bridge, Ramwadi Octroi Naka, Sant Dnyaneshwar Ghat, Pune University (Campus) have very high noise levels. Areas having same noise levels are clustered into same group. Cluster analysis is used to locate the areas having higher noise pollution than their zonal counterparts. For predicting the noise levels in upcoming months, we use time series analysis and try to identify the areas which may need serious monitoring of noise levels.