A Comprehensive Review of Noise Measurement, Standards, Assessment, Geospatial Mapping and Public Health

Noise pollution is an emerging issue in cities around the world. Noise is a pernicious pollutant in urban landscapes mainly due to the increasing number of city inhabitants, road and aviation traffic, industrial and construction activities, and appliances or machinery used in daily life. The objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of noise measurement, guidelines/standards, and parameters used in noise monitoring; noise assessment associated with the area characteristics and the violations of guidelines/standards; noise geospatial mapping in urban planning; and physiological and psychological effects of noise exposure on public health. The review results revealed that standard methodology was lacking in many of the reviewed studies for noise measurement in various land-use patterns, especially the duration of noise monitoring; noise levels exceeded the prescribed noise standards in almost every noise assessment study across the globe irrespective of land-use or designated zone, and are exhibiting rising trends particularly due to traffic-induced noise; the majority of the urban population has been exposed to the noisy environment and affected with significant physiological and psychological health impacts; noise geospatial mapping has demonstrated high potential in noise abatement and management; and marked drop in noise levels in an urban environment during COVID-19 lockdown period. Based on the review results, the present study has suggested some future research perspectives of noise abatement and management that include a focus on – methodical noise assessment with prescribed guidelines of noise measurement and standards; geospatial noise mapping of urban areas, and real-time information system; universal database management software (DBMS) such as SQL and Improvado to compile data in single storage that will allow multiple users to access data despite different geographical locations; awareness programs using multi-media approaches in urban areas; and strict implementation of noise laws and regulations, that leads to the development of advanced technologies, integrated strategies, and sustainable environmental planning to mitigate the menace of noise pollution.