IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i11p5877-d565565.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Quieted City Sounds during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Montreal

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Steele

    (School of Information Studies, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1X1, Canada
    Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology, Montreal, QC H3A 1X1, Canada)

  • Catherine Guastavino

    (School of Information Studies, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1X1, Canada
    Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology, Montreal, QC H3A 1X1, Canada)

Abstract

This paper investigates the transformation of urban sound environments during the COVID-19 pandemic in Montreal, Canada. We report on comparisons of sound environments in three sites, before, during, and after the lockdown. The project is conducted in collaboration with the Montreal festival district (Quartier des Spectacles) as part of the Sounds in the City partnership. The analyses rely on continuous acoustic monitoring of three sites. The comparisons are presented in terms of (1) energetic acoustic indicators over different periods of time (L den , L d , L e , L n ), (2) statistical acoustic indicators (L 10 , L 90 ), and (3) hourly, daily, and weekly profiles of sound levels throughout the day. Preliminary analyses reveal sound level reductions on the order of 6–7 dB(A) during lockdown, with differences more or less marked across sites and times of the day. After lockdown, sound levels gradually increased following an incremental relaxation of confinement. Within four weeks, sound levels measurements nearly reached the pre-COVID-19 levels despite a reduced number of pedestrian activities. Long-term measurements suggest a ‘new normal’ that is not quite as loud without festival activities, but that is also not characterizable as quiet. The study supports reframing debates about noise control and noise management of festival areas to also consider the sounds of such areas when festival sounds are not present.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Steele & Catherine Guastavino, 2021. "Quieted City Sounds during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Montreal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-21, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:11:p:5877-:d:565565
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/5877/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/5877/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. María Dolores Redel-Macías & Pilar Aparicio-Martinez & Sara Pinzi & Pedro Arezes & Antonio José Cubero-Atienza, 2021. "Monitoring Sound and Its Perception during the Lockdown and De-Escalation of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Spanish Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-19, March.
    2. César Asensio & Pierre Aumond & Arnaud Can & Luis Gascó & Peter Lercher & Jean-Marc Wunderli & Catherine Lavandier & Guillermo de Arcas & Carlos Ribeiro & Patricio Muñoz & Gaetano Licitra, 2020. "A Taxonomy Proposal for the Assessment of the Changes in Soundscape Resulting from the COVID-19 Lockdown," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-9, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hind Abdelmoneim Khogali, 2023. "The Effect of Mosque Acoustic Design and the Surrounding Environment on Prayer Health in Riyadh City Post-COVID-19," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 16(4), pages 1-1, July.
    2. Francesco Aletta & Timothy Van Renterghem, 2021. "Associations between Personal Attitudes towards COVID-19 and Public Space Soundscape Assessment: An Example from Antwerp, Belgium," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-15, November.
    3. Falk Hemker & Timo Haselhoff & Susanne Brunner & Bryce T. Lawrence & Katja Ickstadt & Susanne Moebus, 2023. "The Role of Traffic Volume on Sound Pressure Level Reduction before and during COVID-19 Lockdown Measures—A Case Study in Bochum, Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-16, March.
    4. Andrew Mitchell & Mercede Erfanian & Christopher Soelistyo & Tin Oberman & Jian Kang & Robert Aldridge & Jing-Hao Xue & Francesco Aletta, 2022. "Effects of Soundscape Complexity on Urban Noise Annoyance Ratings: A Large-Scale Online Listening Experiment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-16, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yanlong Guo & Ke Wang & Han Zhang & Zuoqing Jiang, 2022. "Soundscape Perception Preference in an Urban Forest Park: Evidence from Moon Island Forest Park in Lu’an City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Daniel Bonet-Solà & Ester Vidaña-Vila & Rosa Ma Alsina-Pagès, 2023. "Analysis and Acoustic Event Classification of Environmental Data Collected in a Citizen Science Project," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-23, February.
    3. Angel M. Dzhambov & Peter Lercher & Drozdstoy Stoyanov & Nadezhda Petrova & Stoyan Novakov & Donka D. Dimitrova, 2021. "University Students’ Self-Rated Health in Relation to Perceived Acoustic Environment during the COVID-19 Home Quarantine," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-21, March.
    4. Beat Schäffer & Armin Taghipour & Jean Marc Wunderli & Mark Brink & Lél Bartha & Sabine J. Schlittmeier, 2022. "Does the Macro-Temporal Pattern of Road Traffic Noise Affect Noise Annoyance and Cognitive Performance?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-24, April.
    5. Falk Hemker & Timo Haselhoff & Susanne Brunner & Bryce T. Lawrence & Katja Ickstadt & Susanne Moebus, 2023. "The Role of Traffic Volume on Sound Pressure Level Reduction before and during COVID-19 Lockdown Measures—A Case Study in Bochum, Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-16, March.
    6. Luca Fredianelli & Peter Lercher & Gaetano Licitra, 2022. "New Indicators for the Assessment and Prevention of Noise Nuisance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-5, October.
    7. Su Wang & Huaidong He & Fulong Li & Qingqing Xiao, 2023. "A Study on the Soundscape of Underground Commercial Space in Lu’an City and Hefei City, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-17, January.
    8. Francesco Aletta & Timothy Van Renterghem, 2021. "Associations between Personal Attitudes towards COVID-19 and Public Space Soundscape Assessment: An Example from Antwerp, Belgium," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-15, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:11:p:5877-:d:565565. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.