Los Angeles noise array—Planning and design lessons from a noise sensing network

Abstract

The interaction between environmental noise and the built environment is an often-neglected area in the practice of urban planning and design. Most quantitative research is limited to single value loudness metrics and ignores the more complex spatial nuances of the noisescape. Qualitative soundscape research, on the other hand, is difficult to generalize to the urban scale. We report on an exploratory noise sensing project in Los Angeles, CA that investigates both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the noisescape. Using an experimental array of noise sensors mounted on city street lights, we collected preliminary data that demonstrate the promising and revealing nature of spatially and temporally granular urban sound data. By analyzing sounds in various frequency bands at different resolutions, we investigate how aspects of urban design such as landscaping, material choice, and building typologies impact the sonic environment. Our results reveal the spatio-temporal structure of low-frequency noise in traffic-exposed areas; a phenomenon not captured by traditional A-weighted decibel metrics. Based on these results, we present a model predicting noise based on historic traffic data. These results provide insights for future methods that can be applied to long-term policymaking and planning decisions.