STUDIES ON THE LEVEL OF SOUND POLLUTION IN BRAILA, ROMANIA

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the degree of noise pollution in Braila. Braila is a city located in southeastern Romania. For this purpose, sound level measurements were performed in various important locations in this city. The monitoring took place between November 2019 and June 2020. The measurements were performed using a professional digital acoustic sound level meter that can record sound values between 30dB-130dB. The sound level meter works with two frequency filters "A” and "C”. "A” filter responds in the same way as the human ear to the increase and decrease of sound amplitude along the spectrum. "C” filter is suitable for uniform measurements without amplitude increase or amplitude decrease. "C” filter can measure the sound level for cars and engines. Both filters operate in the 31.3 Hz and 8 kHz range. The series measured with Noise Logger Communication Tool sound level meter in the two frequency domains were represented as a boxplot. In all monitored areas, the average values recorded in A frequency range are significantly lower than those recorded in C frequency range. This is due to the presence in the environment of some sources of noise from road traffic which includes light and high-speed cars. The data distribution is generally asymmetric to the left, with higher scores. After the establishment of the state of emergency caused by the spread of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, it is observed that the data distribution becomes asymmetric to the right, predominating the low values of the sound intensity level. Using Anova program we analyzed the similarity between the noise series measured in the A and C frequency range. For this purpose, Pearson coefficients also were calculated. © 2022 International Multidisciplinary Scientific Geoconference. All rights reserved.