Author: geonoise

Japan to compensate 3,400 residents over US base noise nuisance

The Japanese government has been ordered to compensate around 3,400 residents living near the US military base in Futenma for various inconveniences, including loud noise leading to distress and insomnia.

Following similar rulings in 2010 and 2015, the Naha district court in Okinawa asked Japan to pay 2.46 billion yen ($22 million) in damages to the plaintiffs, Efe news reported.

The court ruled in favour of thousands of locals, who had filed a class action suit demanding 10 billion yen in damages for distress and insomnia caused by the din from the base.

However, the petitioners’ demand for suspension of flights was rejected.

While the Futenma air base, spread over 480 hectares, is currently located in the central area of the city of Ginowan, surrounded by houses and public buildings, Tokyo and Washington had decided to move it out to a less densely populated area on Okinawa island in Henoko coastal area.

In June 2015, the same court had ordered damages worth 754 million yen for around 2,200 people, while 2010 saw another court asking the administration to cough up 369 million yen in compensation, while dismissing demands to halt flights at the base.

Okinawa houses over half of the nearly 47,000 US soldiers, and 74 per cent of American military installations, in Japan.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/

KOLHAPUR: The dilapidated buildings along the Ganesh idol immersion routes are turning out to be the biggest concern for the civic authorities.
On the one hand, the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) has issued notices to the tenants of 45 such buildings to vacate the structures fearing high-decibel sound can damage those and lead to accidents. On the other hand, it wants the mandals to keep the sound level low along the stretches dotted with the dilapidated buildings to avert any accident because of the high-decibel beats.
The KMC had identified these dilapidated buildings during a survey held a couple of years ago. The civic authorities have now now written to the police administration to ensure that the tenants in the buildings are not present inside at the procession time. If possible, the KMC wants these people to be relocated somewhere else till the procession ends.
The KMC has termed these building dangerous to live in after a structural audit and even disconnected water and electricity supply to ensure the tenants leave. But over the last one month, the KMC has stopped the drive to remove residents of the dangerous buildings.
The civic authorities claimed that most tenants in these buildings were in legal disputes with the respective owner. “The KMC cannot demolish these buildings in the absence of any legal provisions in such a situation,” a KMC official said. Records available with the divisional ward offices reveal that over 40 such buildings should be demolished at the earliest. There are over 90 dilapidated buildings in the city.
KMC divisional engineer S K Mane said, “Through the notice, we have asked the tenants not to stay in the buildings until the processions end. No one should stand on the balconies as they may collapse due to the high-decibel sound. We had asked the tenants and owners to remove the buildings on their own last year. The KMC will not be responsible for any casualty if such a building collapses. Police have been asked to vacate these buildings during the immersion procession.”
Sources said the civic authorities have sought permission from the district administration to demolish the buildings. But the district authorities require more time to study the legal disputes before ordering demolition. Most Ganesh mandal processions pass through Deval Club, Mirajkar Tickti, Mahadwar Road, Papachi Tickti and Gangavesh.

Almost all the dangerous buildings are located along the immersion routes of the major mandals, that use high-decibel sound system to attract revellers, particularly the youth. The immersion procession lasts for more than 24 hours. Pandals of many political parties are also set up along the immersion routes and such sound systems are used for announcements.
“We have installed CCTV cameras along the immersion routes to keep a watch and avert any untoward incident. In case of the dilapidated buildings, we have asked police to ensure that enough space is left between the procession and the building so that rescue operations can be carried out effectively if there’s an emergency. The list of the dangerous buildings along the immersion route will be circulated to the mandals, so that they can reduce the sound volume. Police are entitled to frame charges against mandals if any such building collapses because of the high-decibel sound,” Mane said.
The noise levels should not exceed 50 decibels (dB) in the hospital areas, while the cap is 55db in the residential areas (see graphics). Last year, police had booked 62 mandals for flouting the noise norms. The civic authorities said the dilapidated buildings may not sustain any sound above 80 dB.
Mahendra Shelke, a resident of Malkar Tickti, said, “This year, police have categorically asked the mandals not to use Dolby system during the immersion processions. Even if any accident occurs, the mandals are not held responsible because of their influence. The procession routes should be changed as most of those pass through the congested and old city areas dotted with old buildings.”

Source http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

August Schiess, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
09/01/2016
Urban noise is sometimes seen as merely a harmless annoyance for people who live near busy streets or train stations, but it can cause health problems such as sleep disturbance, hearing loss, hypertension, and heart-related diseases.

Arrays are mounted to the top of an electric vehicle to measure noise levels.
Arrays are mounted to the top of an electric vehicle to measure noise levels.
Researchers have therefore been seeking ways to understand and combat the rising levels of urban noise. A team at the Advanced Digital Sciences Center (ADSC) has developed a signal processing technique that measures urban noise through portable microphones secured to the top of a moving vehicle, enabling the creation of a wide-ranging map of noise pollution.

“With a comprehensive understanding of the levels and types of noise pollution in urban areas, we can then analyze this information to create well-designed soundscapes that can alleviate the bad effects of environmental noise on physical and mental human health,” said Cagdas Tuna, a postdoctoral researcher at ADSC, a University of Illinois research center in Singapore.

Current noise-monitoring techniques are built into microphones fixed to the ground—they only measure sound from that vantage point, making a city-wide noise map an incredibly expensive idea. However, with the team’s portable solution, sound can be measured in as many locations as possible in the neighborhoods travelled by the vehicle.

To gather acoustic signals, they mount a microphone arrangement on an electric vehicle—the quiet engine keeps it from interfering with other external sounds. While driving along, the sensors identify a variety of noises and can pinpoint the location of sounds in relation to the vehicle.

Advanced signal processing tools recover and generate the noise-sources into an acoustic map at multiple frequencies.

“We have developed several different acoustic imaging algorithms, based on the multiple-location measurement scheme, to generate 2D acoustic maps,” said Tuna, a University of Illinois alumnus in electrical and computer engineering. “The maps show the noise-levels and locations of dominant noises.”

The team has been testing the new technique on Singapore streets over the past year. Tuna, who presented this work at the 23rd International Congress on Sound & Vibration (ICSV23) in July 2016, will continue to develop this technique by collecting more measurements around noisy areas such as construction sites.

This acoustics team at ADSC working on the project includes CSL and ECE Professor and ADSC Director Doug Jones, Tuna, Shengkui Zhao, ADSC research scientist, and Thi Ngoc Tho Nguyen, ADSC Senior Software Engineer.

Source : http://adsc.illinois.edu/news/

By: Aparna Anil; http://www.bangaloremirror.com/

In the first part of our campaign, we look at honking, the bane of eardrums across city

The incessant blare of horns is a background score that almost every Bengalurean has come to live with. But what if we were to tell you that 93.7 per cent of people who use their horns do so for no reason whatsoever: that’s what a recent study discovered. In fact, the study claims that Bengaluru is India’s second noisiest city when it comes to honking.

“From the results of the three-day survey conducted as part of a ‘Culture of the City’ study, looks like people of Bengaluru imagine there is a Right to Honk,” says Harish Bijoor, who heads the consulting firm that performed the study for a multinational company. “Bengaluru, today, stands as the second noisiest city in India,” he says, adding that he could not divulge details as to which city topped the list due to the nature of the study.

If you go by that, things have got worse because a few months ago, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) labelled Bengaluru India’s sixth noisiest city.

The high decibel level in Bengaluru is mostly an offshoot of frustration. The study finds: “Forty-two per cent of people honk because the traffic is moving slowly. Another 41 per cent says they honk because others drive badly, “says Bijoor. He adds that the survey’s responses showed that people often used honking like a swear word.

The responses included: “If I don’t honk, somebody else will”, “It is my way of telling them they are wrong”, “It is a way of me using bad language”, etc. “Honks categorised as necessary are those that can avoid an accident or save a life,” says Bijoor elaborating on the categorizations. Those are cases where people honk to caution somebody of their vehicle’s presence when it’s absolutely necessary, or when they honk to attract the attention of an animal crossing the road, which cannot be alerted otherwise.

Another interesting side the study focused on the honking habits of cab drivers – both those who work for cab aggregators and individual drivers. The results showed that drivers who work cab aggregators always tend to honk more than others.

The study also found that women drivers honk less than their male counterparts. “If we take the rate of honking on a scale of 10, then women would be 2, whereas men would be around 8.6,” says Bijoor.

The qualitative study was conducted by deploying 80 people at 80 different junctions in the city .They were deputed for collecting both direct responses from drivers and making observational recordings. Conducted on a sample of 48,000 people, the study has come up with a representative map of the honking intensity at these junctions.

“As this survey was conducted for a global organization, we cannot reveal the exact findings as to which part of the city is the noisiest,” says Bijoor.
The response to the study shows that a majority of Bengalureans see honking as a part of life. They are not particularly annoyed by it and neither do they think of proactive measures to bring down the decibel levels.

The study focusing on the noise levels in cities is also an attempt to look at the decibel levels in third world countries. “Usually, the noise levels in third world countries tend to be higher,” says Bijoor.