| dc.description.abstract | High levels of noise pollution in urban areas have a detrimental effect on the health and quality of life of the affected population. Variations in environmental noise levels generally represent a random process affected by multiple factors. Apart from temporal noise variations, substantial differences in the noise pattern may be aug-mented by multiple factors that can be expected in a complex urban environment. However, there are some generic patterns and statistical characteristics that can be extracted from long term data. This paper analyses common features of sound pressure time histories and frequency spectra using a data set collected over 12 months at different urban locations. It is shown that sound pressure level (SPL) magnitudes do not follow a normal distribution, however several night time samples can be considered “almost normal”. A-weighted and C-weighted noise levels were shown to be highly correlated throughout the monitoring period for all monitoring locations. | en_US |
