Environmental consequences and the epidemiologic results of noise pollution have chronic effects leading to widespread complications in the long run. As far as we know, there are a few studies for pollution monitoring and control systems in comparison with other environmental pollutants. One of the largest metropolitan cities located in Iran is Mashhad city as known as one of the biggest religious cities in the world. Different properties of this city including historical, industrial, and religious draw thousands of visitors to Mashhad, yearly. This fact motivates us to contribute to the concept of noise pollution in streets and sidewalks around the Holy Shrine, namely, Imam Reza. In this regard, different measurements using geographic information system (GIS) and descriptive statistical methods were conducted for our case study in Mashhad, Iran. All measurements and records were done during the peak of morning crowd (10–12 AM) and evening crowd (4–6 PM) on both sidewalks of each street around the Holy Shrine. This study showed that the pollution in the evening time span (4–6 PM) has the maximum level of noise. Among all streets in our case study in Mashhad, Iran, Tabarsi street has the most amount of noise pollution with a mean of 78 dB(A) for the mean intensity for each point, and Imam Reza street has the minimum amount of pollution with a mean of 72.75 dB(A). Our findings from the temporal perspective analysis confirm that the noise pollution peaks in the evening, when weather conditions are favorable. From the spatial perspective analysis, the most intensive noise pollution was observed around residential and accommodation land uses, which have the highest number of arterial routes towards the Holy Shrine.
The environmental consequences and the epidemiologic results of noise pollution have chronic effects and lead to widespread complications in the long run. Thus it might receive less attention by pollution monitoring and control systems when compared with other environmental pollutants. The city of Mashhad is Iran’s second largest metropolitan city and it is one of the biggest world religious cities in the world. Each year it becomes one of the main destinations for travel for tourists and pilgrims in Iran and abroad in the holidays of the beginning of the year and the summer. In this research study the distribution of sound pollutants in the streets and sidewalks leading to the Holy shrine of Imam Reza is investigated. Field measurements were carried out by noise level meters and on longitudinal and transverse points of the sidewalk of the streets leading to the Holy Shrine. All of the measurements and recordings were done during the peak of morning crowd (AM 10-12) and evening crowd (PM 4-6) and on both of the sidewalks of each street. The study showed that the pollution in all of the studied streets in the evening time span (PM 4-6) has the maximum level of noise. Among all of the studied streets, Tabarsi street has the most amount of noise pollution with a mean of 78 dB(A) for the mean intensity for each point and Imam Reza street has the minimum amount of pollution with a mean of 72.75 dB(A). The investigations showed that, from the temporal perspective, the noise pollution peaks in the evening, when weather conditions are most favorable for visiting the area. From the spatial perspective, the most intensive noise pollution was observed in the areas with residential and accommodation land use, which have the highest number of arterial routes towards the shrine.
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