Author: Richy

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Asia Noise News

Soundscape Under Covid-19

Many around the world are experiencing life with very low noise levels due to restrictions as we are confined to our home and there is a decrease in the industrial, transportation and leisure activity. This provides a wonderful opportunity to quantify and record for the future the lower noise levels of our soundscapes. With the reduction in shipping there is also a change in the underwater soundscapes.

Nowadays there are a high number of noise monitoring systems (noise monitoring terminals, city wide systems, underwater systems etc.) installed all over the world which will capture this information for the future. However, there are many acousticians working from home with access to a sound level meter that can be used to capture the soundscape from their balcony or from their garden and compare the before and after the restrictions.

The IYS 2020 committee has provided a central contact between a number around the world who were thinking similarly that there would be some benefit in coordination and a little standardization in the capture of the data. Marçal Serra from CESVA has taken a lead to set up a LinkedIn group COVID-19 Noise Reduction (at www.linkedin.com/groups/13844820/) and with hashtag #COVID19NoiseReduction for any posts.

The following is a general structure for those who wish to participate and share their data in the future. But do not break your confinement to report this data!

  • Place: Country and city (e.g., Spain village near Barcelona)
  • Primary noise source: (e.g., Traffic noise: note number of lanes per direction or Social noise: note if café/bar/restaurant/sporting)
  • Noise measuring system: The noise measuring system used to measure Lduring, Lbefore, and Lafter
  • Noise level during COVID-19 confinement: Lduring, expressed as a weighted overall level (preferably LAeq,1 hour), spectrum or psychoacoustic metrics as Loudness. It could also be reported as an image of the noise time history or a weekly color map and/or compiled into a report/article/conference paper with the measurement details and the comparison data
  • Noise level before & after COVID-19 confinement: Lbefore & Lafter, expressed in the same way as Lduring and over the same time period.
Categories
Asia Noise News

Ensure no sound pollution rules are breached in UP, HC tells govt (Allahabad)

noise pollution india
noise pollution india

Allahabad, Aug 20 The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to ensure that no noise pollution rules are violated in the state, saying the breach of decibel limits would be treated as the violation of fundamental rights of citizens.
A bench of justices P K S Baghel and Pankaj Bhatia gave the direction on public interest litigation by one Sushil Chand Srivastava, an Allahabad native.

Srivastava had moved the court alleging that huge LCD screens have been put up all over the city and they emanate sound beyond permissible decibel limits and cause noise pollution since early in the morning till late into the night.

The petitioner submitted to the court that authorities have failed to enforce the law as well as various directions of the Supreme Court on the menace of the noise pollution.

Taking note of the allegations, the court asked authorities to categories the cities in the state into industrial, commercial, residential or silence zone for regulating noise pollution in the state.

The court also entrusted the responsibility of implementing various laws and bylaws, rules and regulations relating to the noise pollution in their jurisdictions to the station house officers of various police stations and the circle inspectors.

The court also directed its registry to send a copy of its order to the state chief secretary for its compliance.

“Any breach of the Noise Pollution Rule, 2000 shall be treated to be the violation of the fundamental right of a citizen,” the court added.

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Asia Noise News

International Year of Sound 2020

International Year of Sound 2020

Organisational Structure for the International Year of Sound 2020

The founder of Geonoise Michel Rosmolen will be pro-active in the promotion of the Year of Sound 2020 as member of the steering committee for Asia Pacific, focussing on South-East Asian countries.

An array of exciting events and activities for the International Year of Sound 2020 will originate with the ICA centrally, the ICA Member Societies, groups involved with acoustics, and with La Semaine du Son. These are described in more detail on the Activities page.

Coordination of events will be an important part of the International Year of Sound, to keep everyone informed about what is being done across the world and to publicize the events. In this regard, several committees have been put in place:

  • Coordinating Committee with representation from all ICA Member Societies and International Affiliates
  • Liaison Committee to provide coordination between the ICA and the Semaine du Son organisations
  • Steering Committee to coordinate all activities of the IYS 2020 which will include events managed by the Coordinating Committee and the Liaison Committee

Additionally, activities organised by other groups (Affiliated Groups) will be publicized.

Coordinating Committee

The IYS Coordinating Committee is comprised of representatives from each ICA Member Society and ICA International Affiliate. Each member organisation/society is asked to nominate a coordinator to be the primary contact with the ICA IYS steering committee The coordinator will discuss with the organization/society the events/activities that can be undertaken during 2020 and will help to promote one or more aspects of acoustics. The list of representatives, so far, is:

Organisation Representative
Acoustical Society of America (ASA) Keeta Jones
Belgian Acoustical Society (ABAV) Secretary of ABAV
Canadian Acoustical Association (CAA) Jérémie Voix
Acoustical Society of China (ASC) Li Fenghua
Acoustical Society of Croatia (HAD) Kristian Jambrošić
German Acoustical Society (DEGA) Brigitte Schulte-Fortkamp
Intl. Commission on Biological Effects of Sound (ICBEN) Mark Brink
Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE-USA) Patricia Davies
Acoustical Society of India (ASI) V.R. Singh
Iranian Society of Acoustics and Vibration (ISAV) Mahoud Golzari
Acoustical Society of Italy (AIA) Sergio Luzzi
Acoustical Society of Japan (ASJ) Akio Ando
Acoustical Society of Korea (ASK) Sung-Hwan Shin
Acoustic Society of the Netherlands (NAG) Erik Roelofsen
Acoustical Society of Singapore (SAS) Woon Siong Gan
Sociedad Espanola de Acústica (SEA) Antonio Pedrero
Turkish Acoustical Society (TAKDER) Konca Saher

Liaison Committee

The International Year of Sound is working closely with La Semaine du Son (LSdS) with the goal to expand the opportunities for the activities of LSdS following coordination with more national organisations and will provide the opportunity for the expansion and continuation into the coming decades. The ICA and LSdS have created a Liaison Committee to coordinate the IYS 2020.

ICA: Michael Taroudakis and Marion Burgess

LSdS: Christian Hugonnet, Jean-Dominique Polack and Nicolas Lounis

Steering Committee

An ICA-IYS 2020 Steering Committee will be formed to coordinate all the activities of the IYS 2020, which will include events managed by ICA Member Societies and supporting Organisations. Members of this Committee will be representatives from all the ICA Regions.

Coordinators: Marion Burgess and Michael Taroudakis

Regional responsibility:

Europe/Africa: Michael Vorländer, Antonino di Bella, Antonio Perez-Lopez
Asia/Pacific: Jeong-Guon Ih, Kohei Yamamoto, Michel Rosmolen
Americas: Mike Stinson, Fausto Rodrigues, Julio Cordioli

The next ICA President, Vice President, and Treasurer will join the Committee after their election in September 2019.

Affiliated Groups

Does your group, committee, or organisation wish to hold an outreach or educational event during IYS 2020 to help raise awareness of the importance of sound in our lives? Let us know via the Event Form and we can include your events in our Calendar of Events.

  • United Kingdom Acoustics Network (UKAN)
    contact: Charlotte Swain
Categories
Asia Noise News

Police Delhi catch and seize 500 loud exhausts of Royal Enfield Motorcycles

Noisy exhausts caught and seized by Indian police, New Delhi
Noisy exhausts caught and seized by Indian police, New Delhi

Police Delhi catch and seize 500 loud exhausts of Royal Enfield Motorcycles

Noise pollution on Indian roads is a major cause of concern with commuters honking incessantly thus creating a lot of commotion and ill-effects. Motorists using aftermarket exhausts on their vehicles also add greatly to noise pollution and it is illegal to use too. Currently, a police drive in Delhi is seeing the cops catch Royal Enfield motorcycles in large numbers for breaking the law by using aftermarket exhausts, reported Cartoq. According to a video posted by Royal Soldier on Youtube, police personnel can be seen forming teams to catch the lawbreakers and issuing challan for using illegal exhausts. They can further be seen removing the exhausts on the spot so that bike owners cannot make use of them again.

In the video, the cops can be seen removing the exhaust on the spot where they have nabbed a particular Royal Enfield and then carefully marking them to keep a record. It is not known if the motorcycles were allowed to be ridden by the owners without exhausts, reported Cartoq. Notably, any vehicle can create loud noise if the exhaust is not installed and Royal Enfield is known to produce the characteristic thump on being started. The noise emanated can become extremely unbearable without the exhaust. The cops were also seen catching modified motorcycles with loud aftermarket horns and pressure horns, reported Cartoq. Extremely loud horns, if they exceed a specific noise level, are illegal in India and vehicles can be booked for noise pollution. The cops in the video can be seen removing the horns too and marking them carefully.

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Asia Noise News

Curbing lavish weddings, cut noise pollution, New Delhi, India

The decision is based on a report prepared by a panel of officials of the Delhi Government after the Supreme Court of India was ticked off about the wasting of tonnes of foods at such weddings.

The top court, while hearing a petition on the reported starvation deaths of three girls in the national capital, wanted to know the views of Delhi Government on food wastage at weddings, restaurants, and hotels.

A four-member panel set up by the Delhi Government drafted a policy, which is now under the consideration of the government. The policy entails several restrictions, like the number of guests based on the capacity of the venue, use of horse-carriages and bands, ban on firearms, compliance of pollution norms for diesel power generating sets, mandatory distribution of surplus food to the underprivileged through voluntary organisations.

The report also recommended heavy penalties for operators of wedding venues and also on organisers and caterers. There are around 300 marriage halls in Delhi, but during the peak wedding season, 30,000 to 50,000 weddings take place every day, most of which are held in parks and other public spaces.

The wedding services market in India is worth $54 billion, according to a market survey carried out by Matrimony.Com, a web network of matchmaking services. The survey indicates that 10 to 12 million marriages take place in India every year. The survey revealed that the money spent on each marriage is a minimum of Rs. 10-20 lakhs (approximately $14,600-$29,000).

A recent wedding ceremony of India’s richest corporate honcho Mukesh Ambani’s daughter was estimated to have cost $100 million. The former first lady of the US Hillary Clinton and business tycoon Henry Travis were among the guests and over 1,000 limousines were deployed to chauffeur the guests around.

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