Port Noise and Complaints in the North Tyrrhenian Sea and Framework for Remediation

Urban network noise control based on road grade optimization considering comprehensive traffic environment benefit

A double-decision optimization model based on the road grade optimization strategy and considered comprehensive traffic environment benefit is proposed to control the traffic noise. The upper-level model maximizes the comprehensive traffic environment benefit, including network noise emission and traffic efficiency. Adjusting the emphasis on noise optimization benefits and traffic efficiency in road network planning through setting weights. The lower-level resolves the question of network traffic flow assignment using a stochastic user-equilibrium model. The increase of traffic environment demand, network noise emissions decrease and travel time rises. In the case, with a low environmental requirement (weighting with 1.1), the sound pressure emission of the network decreases by 9.23% with only a 4.01% increase in travel time. Under the high environmental requirement (weighting with 0.2), the sound pressure decreases by 26.8%, but the travel time rises by as high as 30.9%. The network is optimized towards road grade degradation and is the first to optimize the arterial roads. In addition, it is found that the influence of speed on traffic noise is greater than that of traffic volume through case validation. This method proposing traffic noise optimization strategies at the road network planning level provides technical support for the proactive governance of traffic noise pollution and the improvement of traffic sound environment quality.

Pathways to protect marine biodiversity: Could Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) be benefited by landscape ecology?

The marine environment faces multiple threats, many of which are still undiscovered. Anthropogenic noise is considered a representative indicator of the human footprint. The aim of this short communication is to protect marine biodiversity by exploiting basic principles of Landscape and Soundscape Ecology and borrowing methods and tools to identify and map the human induced noise of the marine environment and thus create, based on this information layer, a connectivity pathway among all Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Today it is of vital importance to take urgent action towards protecting the marine environment. Could we be inspired by effective and practical solutions of biodiversity conservation, already successfully implemented in the terrestrial environment, taking into account the special and diverse characteristics of the marine environment to protect marine biodiversity?

Source characterization guidelines for noise mapping of port areas

Maritime transport for both passengers and freight is continuously increasing and, consequently, the global attention toward its sustainability is growing. Ships offer advantages in terms of environmental impact compared to other transportation systems but the increasing traffic volume is expected to increase pollutants. Noise produced in port areas has been neglected for too long, until the INTERREG Maritime programme Italy-France 2014–2020 has brought to light how citizen complaints are emerging for some of the main ports in the Mediterranean. However, port noise prevention and management is difficult as knowledge on specific sources is very limited in the literature. Furthermore, on field measurements are difficult to be performed given the complexity of the port area, where multiple types of sound emitters mix and confuse each other.

Noise maps represent the first important step in order to align ports to the requirements set by the Environmental Noise Directive to the transportation infrastructures. Once computed, they are an excellent tool supporting port management towards the reduction of citizens’ noise exposure while ensuring traffic growth.

The present paper reports a guideline for the characterization of noise sources needed as inputs for the noise maps, as developed in the framework of the INTERREG Maritime programme Italy-France 2014–2020. On the basis of the current state of the art, a procedure has been elaborated for different categories of noise sources acting in port, ranging from stationary to moving ships, from mooring operations to loading/unloading operations, from industrial activities to road and railway traffic.

A novel approach to port noise characterization using an acoustic camera

Acoustic cameras are powerful instruments combining an optical camera with a microphone array to obtain information about power and location of noise sources. The main aim of this study is to identify key points in the application of an acoustic camera to the characterization of port noise. An experimental campaign was carried out in the seaport of Genoa. Based on this experience, a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis was performed. The experimental results confirm the intrinsic complexity of the noise field in ports. Several noise sources were identified and can be categorized by their duration, intensity, location and spectral content; the analysis performed allows us to propose a basic framework for the innovative application of this technique to the port noise context. Acoustic cameras can be considered viable and useful tools to characterize and monitor port noise, following at least the minimum key points highlighted in the proposed framework.

An ICT Prototyping Framework for the "Port of the Future"

Seaports are genuine, intermodal hubs connecting seaways to inland transport links, such as roads and railways. Seaports are located at the focal point of institutional, industrial, and control activities in a jungle of interconnected information systems. System integration is setting considerable challenges when a group of independent providers are asked to implement complementary software functionalities. For this reason, seaports are the ideal playground where software is highly composite and tailored to a large variety of final users (from the so-called port communities). Although the target would be that of shaping the Port Authorities to be providers of (digital) innovation services, the state-of-the-art is still that of considering them as final users, or proxies of them. For this reason, we show how a canonical cloud, virtualizing a distributed architecture, can be structured to host different, possibly overlapped, tenants, slicing the information system at the infrastructure, platform, and software layers. Resources at the infrastructure and platform layers are shared so that a variety of independent applications can make use of the local calculus and access the data stored in a Data Lake. Such a cloud is adopted by the Port of Livorno as a rapid prototyping framework for the development and deployment of ICT innovation services. In order to demonstrate the versatility of this framework, three case studies relating to as many prototype ICT services (Navigation Safety, e-Freight, and Logistics) released within three industrial tenants are here presented and discussed.

Investigating the effects of occupational and environmental noise on cardiovascular diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The present study aimed to use a meta-analysis to investigate the relationship between occupational and non-occupational noise exposure expressed in various studies with cardiovascular disease. This is a systematic review and meta-analysis study based on PRISMA checklist. In this study, the researchers searched five international databases of Medline/PubMed, Embase, Scopus, ISI/web of knowledge, and Google Scholar. Search keywords included two categories noise and noise pollution, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension. The Joanna Briggs Institute checklist was used to review and control the quality of the articles. After all screening stage 139 articles entered the final analysis. The results show that except for East African environmental studies and workplace studies in East Asia, Western Asia, and Northern Europe, there was a significant association between noise exposure and cardiovascular disease. Also, there was a significant difference between the intensity of sound and blood pressure in workers (OR = 1.28, CI 95%: 1.15-1.42, P < 0.001). Based on the results of environmental noise, there was a significant difference between ambient noise intensity and blood pressure (OR = 1.55, CI 95%: 1.53-1.57, P < 0.001). It can be concluded that it is very important to study and identify jobs or living environments with less than the recommended noise level and in addition to hearing aids that occur in over-standard exposures, such as cardiovascular disease.

Seafarers' Perception and Attitudes towards Noise Emission on Board Ships

Noise has long been neglected as an environmental pollutant and impairment health factor in maritime transport. Recently, acoustic pollution indicates the highest growth in transport external cost unit values. In 2020, questionnaires were submitted to seafarers to examine their noise exposure and perception on board and attitudes towards noise abatement measures. Responses of 189 participants were processed using descriptive statistics and Likert scale valuation, while their consistency was tested with indirect indicators using linear regression and correlation test. Results show that more than 40% of respondents do not consider noise as a significant environmental problem. The negative perception among respondents with ≥10 years of work experience was much lower (23.53%). Most are aware of the onboard noise harmful effects that can influence their health. Despite that, they use personal protection equipment only sometimes. A higher positive perception was recorded in groups of respondents with a university degree (90%), work experience longer than ten years (82.35%), and monthly income higher than 4000 € (70%). Respondents are not strongly motivated to participate in funding noise mitigation measures, and such a viewpoint is not related to their monthly incomes. The low awareness and motivation regarding acoustic pollution generally shown by the surveyed seafarers should be watched as a threat by the company managers. Better education and awareness are likely to be crucial to change the current state of affairs.

Selecting Suitable, Green Port Crane Equipment for International Commercial Ports

Responding to the increasing global need for environmental protection, a green port balances economic vibrancy with environmental protection. However, because exhaust emissions (e.g., CO2 or sulfide) are difficult to monitor around ports, data on such emissions are often incomplete, which hinders research on this topic. The present study aimed to fill this gap in this topic. To remedy this problem, this study formulated a new data envelopment analysis (DEA) method for collecting CO2 emissions data at their source. This method was applied to collect real-world operating data from a large container-handling company in Taiwan. Specifically, we provide a real example using a novel green energy index to account for undesirable outputs. Our main objective was to formulate two methods that combine: (1) data envelopment analysis based on a modified slack-based measure, and (2) a multi-choice goal programming approach. The contributions of this paper included the finding that rubber-tired gantry cranes are the greenest and should be used in ports. Finally, our findings aid port managers in selecting port equipment that provides the best balance between environmental protection and profitability.

Classification of Noise Sources for Port Area Noise Mapping

Maritime transportation is recognized to have advantages in terms of environmental impact compared to other forms of transportation. However, an increment in traffic volumes will also produce an increase in noise emissions in the surroundings for a greener source, as ports are frequently surrounded by urban areas. When more sources or higher noise emissions are introduced, the noise exposure of citizens increases, and the likelihood of official complaints rises. As a consequence, among the most demanding aspects of port management is effective noise management aimed at a reduction in the exposure of citizens while ensuring the growth of maritime traffic. At the same time, the topic has not been thoroughly studied by the scientific community, mostly because port areas are challenging from a noise management point of view; they are often characterized by a high degree of complexity, both in terms of the number of different noise sources and their interaction with the other main transportation infrastructure. Therefore, an effective methodology of noise modeling of the port area is currently missing. With regard to the INTERREG Maritime Program, the present paper reports a first attempt to define noise mapping guidelines. On the basis of the current state-of-the-art and the authors’ experiences, noise sources inside port areas can be divided into several different categories: road sources, railway sources, ship sources, port sources, and industrial sources. A further subdivision can be achieved according to the working operation mode and position of the sources. This classification simplifies actions of identification of the responsible source from control bodies, in the case that noise limits are exceeded or citizen complaints arise. It also represents a necessary tool to identify the best placing of medium/long-term noise monitoring stations. The results also act as a base for a future definition of specific and targeted procedures for the acoustic characterization of port noise sources.

Parameters Affecting Noise Emitted by Ships Moving in Port Areas

Only recently has noise been considered in the assessment of the sustainability of port infrastructures, after decades of unawareness. INTERREG Maritime projects unveiled problems that have been neglected so far, such as the lack of proper regulation and noise exposure assessments for citizens. While it is true that a port area includes a huge variety of possible noise sources, very few of them have been characterized from an acoustical point of view. INTERREG projects have boosted research in the field, and previous studies have dealt with noise produced by moving ships in ports. The present work starts from a previous measurement campaign used to obtain broadband and 1/3-octave-band noise emissions of moving ships, and it aims to explain their uncertainties. More than a month’s worth of continuous acoustic measurements and video recordings were deeply analyzed in order to obtain an input database that is as precise as possible. A multiple regression analysis was performed in order to understand the influence that parameters such as minimum distance, speed, and draught have on ships’ noise emissions, which were calculated using pass-by measurements, with a special focus on ferries. The minimum distance of each ship’s passage from the microphone was measured using a video recording with an innovative methodology, providing results with 3 m of uncertainty. Knowing which parameter is more influential would help in planning proper measurements for monitoring or for drafting correct guidelines. Draught was determined to be uninfluential in ferries’ noise emissions, while the minimum distance and speed relations were estimated and accounted for in the calculation of a refined sound power level. From a spectrum point of view, the frequencies from 500 Hz to 2.5 kHz were determined to be those that contributed the most to the noise produced by the transit of a ship, and they vary with speed. With the studied corrections, different ferry models resulted in similar noise emissions. The standard deviation of noise emitted was reduced by 0.5 dB (A), and the average was also improved by positioning the ships’ flow at the correct average minimum distance. Furthermore, the right placement of a source is also important in the acoustic mapping phase for a correct evaluation of the propagation of noise at a distance. The use of more precise input data is important for improving the output of acoustic propagation models during the assessment of port noise in the surrounding areas.

RaveGuard: A Noise Monitoring Platform Using Low-End Microphones and Machine Learning

Urban noise is one of the most serious and underestimated environmental problems. According to the World Health Organization, noise pollution from traffic and other human activities, negatively impact the population health and life quality. Monitoring noise usually requires the use of professional and expensive instruments, called phonometers, able to accurately measure sound pressure levels. In many cases, phonometers are human-operated; therefore, periodic fine-granularity city-wide measurements are expensive. Recent advances in the Internet of Things (IoT) offer a window of opportunities for low-cost autonomous sound pressure meters. Such devices and platforms could enable fine time–space noise measurements throughout a city. Unfortunately, low-cost sound pressure sensors are inaccurate when compared with phonometers, experiencing a high variability in the measurements. In this paper, we present RaveGuard, an unmanned noise monitoring platform that exploits artificial intelligence strategies to improve the accuracy of low-cost devices. RaveGuard was initially deployed together with a professional phonometer for over two months in downtown Bologna, Italy, with the aim of collecting a large amount of precise noise pollution samples. The resulting datasets have been instrumental in designing InspectNoise, a library that can be exploited by IoT platforms, without the need of expensive phonometers, but obtaining a similar precision. In particular, we have applied supervised learning algorithms (adequately trained with our datasets) to reduce the accuracy gap between the professional phonometer and an IoT platform equipped with low-end devices and sensors. Results show that RaveGuard, combined with the InspectNoise library, achieves a 2.24% relative error compared to professional instruments, thus enabling low-cost unmanned city-wide noise monitoring.

Numerical Investigation of Tip-Vortex Cavitation Noise of an Elliptic Wing Using Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian Approaches

In this study, a numerical methodology is developed to investigate the tip-vortex cavitation of NACA16-020 wings and their flow noise. The numerical method consists of a sequential one-way coupled application of Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches. First, the Eulerian method based on Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equation is applied to predict the single-phase flow field around the wing, with particular emphasis on capturing high-resolution tip-vortex flow structures. Subsequently, the tip-vortex flow field is regenerated by applying the Scully vortex model. Secondly, the Lagrangian approach is applied to predict the tip-vortex cavitation inception and noise of the wing. The initial nuclei are distributed upstream of the wing. The subsequent time-varying size and position of each nucleus are traced by solving spherically symmetric bubble dynamics equations for the nuclei in combination with the flow field predicted from the Eulerian approach. The acoustic pressure at the observer position is computed by modelling each bubble as a point source. The numerical results of the acoustic pressure spectrum are best matched to the measured results when the nuclei number density of freshwater is used. Finally, the current numerical method is applied to the flows of various cavitation numbers. The results reveal that the cavitation inception determined by the predicted acoustic pressure spectrum well matched the experimental result.

The Association between Noise Exposure and Metabolic Syndrome: A Longitudinal Cohort Study in Taiwan

Metabolic syndrome is becoming more common worldwide. Studies suggest environmental pollution, including traffic noise, might be linked with metabolic syndrome. This study sought to evaluate how noise exposure is linked to the development of metabolic syndrome and its components in Taiwan. Using data from a cohort of 42,509 participants and Cox proportional hazards regression models, the effects of noise exposure on metabolic syndrome and its components were quantified. After adjustment for covariates (age, gender, body mass index, and physical activity), the hazard ratio for metabolic syndrome was 1.13 (95% CI: 1.04–1.22) for medium noise exposure and 1.24 (95% CI: 1.13–1.36) for high noise exposure. Noise exposure was also positively associated with all of metabolic syndrome’s components. This finding suggests noise exposure might contribute to metabolic syndrome and its components. Policies aiming to reduce noise pollution might reduce the risks of metabolic syndrome and its components.

A Weighted Linear Least Squares Location Method of an Acoustic Emission Source without Measuring Wave Velocity

The location of an acoustic emission (AE) source is crucial for predicting and controlling potential hazards. In this paper, a novel weighted linear least squares location method for AE sources without measuring wave velocity is proposed. First, the governing equations of each sensor are established according to the sensor coordinates and arrival times. Second, a mean reference equation is established by taking the mean of the squared governing equations. Third, the system of linear equations can be obtained based on the mean reference equation, and their residuals are estimated to obtain their weights. Finally, the AE source coordinate is obtained by weighting the linear equations and inserting the parameter constraint. The AE location method is verified by a pencil lead break experiment, and the results show that the locating accuracy of the proposed method is significantly higher than that of traditional methods. Furthermore, the simulation test proves that the proposed method also has a better performance (location accuracy and stability) than the traditional methods under any given scale of arrival errors.

Evaluation of urban inland waterway traffic noise using a modified Nord 2000 prediction model

This study developed a prediction model for estimating urban inland waterway traffic noise emission level. The model based on the Scandinavian Nord 2000 method, which was modified by adding two categories of traffic flow, comprising light and heavy vessels, as well as vessel average speed to the calculating equations. Meanwhile, the influences of the water surface and embankment were also considered in the established model. Model verification was conducted using the data surveyed at the 30 sampling points of Danjinlicaohe Channel in Jiangsu Province of China. A high correlation was found between the predicted and measured noise values L_Aeq (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.949, p < 0.01). And the mean difference between the predicted and measured noise values was 0.16 ± 1.28 dBA. The results showed that the proposed model had higher accuracy than the unmodified Nord 2000 method and can be applied for predicting vessel noise exposure level on inland waterway of China.

Field Study of the Interior Noise and Vibration of a Metro Vehicle Running on a Viaduct: A Case Study in Guangzhou

The interior noise and vibration of metro vehicles have been the subject of increasing concern in recent years with the development of the urban metro systems. However, there still is a lack of experimental studies regarding the interior noise and vibration of metro vehicles. Therefore, overnight field experiments of the interior noise and vibration of a standard B-type metro train running on a viaduct were conducted on metro line 14 of Guangzhou (China). Both the A-weighted sound pressure level and linear sound pressure level were used to evaluate the interior noise signals in order to revel the underestimation of the low-frequency noise components. The results show that the interior noise concentrates in the low-to-middle frequency range. Increasing train speeds have significant effects on the sound pressure level inside the vehicle. However, two obvious frequency ranges (125–250 Hz and 400–1000 Hz) with respective corresponding center frequencies (160 Hz and 800 Hz) of the interior noise are nearly independent of train speed. The spectrum analysis of the vehicle body vibration shows that the frequency peak of the floor corresponds to the first frequency peak of the interior noise spectrum. There are two frequency peaks around 40 Hz and 160 Hz of the sidewall’s acceleration level. The frequency peaks of the acceleration level are also independent of the train speeds. It hopes that the field measurements in this paper can provide a data set for researchers for further investigations and can contribute to the countermeasures for reducing interior noise and vibration of a metro vehicle.