Changes in noise levels in the city of Madrid during COVID-19 lockdown in 2020

The lockdown that Madrid has suffered during the months of March to June 2020 to try to control and minimize the spread of COVID-19 has significantly altered the acoustic environment of the city. The absence of vehicles and people on the streets has led to a noise reduction captured by the monitorin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Vol. 148; no. 3; p. 1748
Main Authors Asensio, César, Pavón, Ignacio, de Arcas, Guillermo
Format Journal Article Web Resource
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Institute of Physics 01.09.2020
Subjects
Betacoronavirus
Cities
Coronavirus Infections
COVID-19
Environmental Monitoring
Humans
Noise
Pandemics
Pneumonia, Viral
SARS-CoV-2
Spain
Cities
Spain
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Summary:The lockdown that Madrid has suffered during the months of March to June 2020 to try to control and minimize the spread of COVID-19 has significantly altered the acoustic environment of the city. The absence of vehicles and people on the streets has led to a noise reduction captured by the monitoring network of the City of Madrid. In this article, an analysis has been carried out to describe the reduction in noise pollution that has occurred and to analyze the changes in the temporal patterns of noise, which are strongly correlated with the adaptation of the population's activity and behavior to the new circumstances. The reduction in the sound level ranged from 4 to 6 dBA for the indicators L , L , and L , and this is connected to a significant variation in the daily time patterns, especially during weekends, when the activity started earlier in the morning and lasted longer at midday, decreasing significantly in the afternoon.
ISSN:1520-8524
0001-4966
DOI:10.1121/10.0002008