Aircraft noise and environmental equity in Montréal: A comparison of noise indicators and an analysis of the impacts of COVID-19.

From an environmental equity perspective, the aim of this paper is twofold. First, we want to verify to what extent vulnerable population groups resided in areas exposed to high levels of aircraft noise before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2019 and 2020) in the Montréal census metropolitan area. Second, we want to identify whether the use of an aircraft noise indicator rather than another generates significant variations in the results and consequently in terms of affected areas and populations. With the IMPACT web-application, we model aircraft noise contours from three cumulative (Lden , Ldn , Laeq ,24h) and a single-event (LAmax ) metrics. The model's input data are retrieved by a website for flight tracking. Next, four variables are extracted from the 2016 Statistics Canada census at a fine scale level (dissemination areas): that is, the percentages of low-income individuals, visible minorities, children under 15 years old, and individuals aged 65 and over. The results show a significant drop in population exposed to aircraft noise in 2020 compared to 2019. In addition, the estimates of populations impacted by aircraft noise differ from one indicator to the next. The logistic regression models indicate that the inequities are inconsistent between cumulative and single-event metrics.

Determination of Annual Environmental Noise Indicators Using a Series of Short-Term Measurements

Completely reliable annual values of environmental noise indicators can be obtained only through continuous annual noise measurements. This paper examines the justification of using a series of short-term measurements to determine the annual values of environmental noise indicators. The examination involves the application of a proposed measurement program to the results of continuous annual noise monitoring at two locations in the city of Niš, Serbia, in which road traffic is the dominant noise source. Monitoring results include the period when the state of emergency was in effect because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The obtained results indicate that using the proposed program is fully justified if the goal is to define annual environmental noise indicator values for specific cases only. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.