2Loud?: Community mapping of exposure to traffic noise with mobile phones

Despite ample medical evidence of the adverse impacts of traffic noise on health, most policies for traffic noise management are arbitrary or incomplete, resulting in serious social and economic impacts. Surprisingly, there is limited information about citizen’s exposure to traffic noise worldwide. This paper presents the 2Loud? mobile phone application, developed and tested as a methodology to monitor, assess and map the level of exposure to traffic noise of citizens with focus on the night period and indoor locations, since sleep disturbance is one of the major triggers for ill health related to traffic noise. Based on a community participation experiment using the 2Loud? mobile phone application in a region close to freeways in Australia, the results of this research indicates a good level of accuracy for the noise monitoring by mobile phones and also demonstrates significant levels of indoor night exposure to traffic noise in the study area. The proposed methodology, through the data produced and the participatory process involved, can potentially assist in planning and management towards healthier urban environments.