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societies is forcing local and central governments to reduce the effect of noise
exposure on health and also in general on the well-being of society.
Noise sensitivity, resembling a level of allergy to sounds, seems the primary
mechanism that produces the interindividual different levels of annoyance and
other effects such as those on communication, recreation, concentration, and
sleeping disturbance.
Noise is generally associated with the urban context where is found the highest
concentration of technological sonic devices. Urban noise is on the agenda for
mitigation measures and is in first place in urban regulation.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least seven major
consequences on human health are expected after prolonged exposure of the
human body to a severe sonic environment: hearing impairment, interference in
communication, sleep disturbance, cardiovascular disturbance, disturbances in
mental health, impaired task performance, negative social behavior, and annoyance
reactions.
Noise is not only a physical phenomenon but also a psychoacoustic object that
can be analyzed in terms of loudness, sharpness, roughness, fluctuation strength,
informative content of the sound signal, and cultural background. The cultural
background becomes of primary importance in sound perception more than the
energy of the sound per se.
The urban landscape is one of the major contributors to the dose of noise that
humans absorb every day. Soundscape rating in an urban context largely depends
on the status of the subjects, whether residents or visitors. Just these two categories
have a different amount of sonic ambience.
Urban areas because of their increasing extension and intrinsic environmental
heterogeneity have a growing attractiveness for biodiversity, which opens new
unexpected scenarios to biodiversity conservation in urban areas where sensitivity
to natural values meets a broad consensus in urban societies.
The expansion of urban areas and the associated increase of anthropogenic
sound intrusion require urgently an intensification of the research agenda on the
effects of noise for terrestrial and aquatic systems.
References
Aiken RB (1982) Shallow-water propagation of frequencies in aquatic insect sounds. Can J Zool
60:3459-3461
Amoser S, Ladich F (2005) Are hearing sensitivities of freshwater fish adapted to the ambient
noise in their habitats. J Exp Biol 208:3533-3542
Au WWL, Green M (2000) Acoustic interaction of humpback whales and whale-watching boats.
Mar Environ Res 49:469-481
Bailey H, Senior B, Simmons D, Rusin J, Picken G, Thompson PM (2010) Assessing underwater
noise levels during pile-driving at an offshore windfarm and its potential effects on marine
mammals. Mar Pollut Bull 60(6):888-897. doi:
10.1016/J.marpolbul.2010.01.003
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