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

Abstract

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 d , L e , and L n , 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.

Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the external environmental noise of a public hospital in Sorocaba, Brazil

“…No estudo de Gozalo et al (2019), os autores verificaram forte correlação (r = 0,92; p≤0,001) entre o número de veículos circulantes e os níveis sonoros medidos na cidade de Cáceres, Espanha e relatam que a velocidade dos veículos causou diferenças entre os valores medidos e simulados. Asensio et al (2020b) observaram redução de 4,1 a 4,6 dB(A) no ruído noturno em dias de semana durante a pandemia e relatam que este valor é inferior ao esperado, visto a enorme redução na circulação de veículos em Madrid (aproximadamente 85%), atribuindo como um dos fatores a manter os níveis elevados, a velocidade dos veículos restantes.…”

Rapid behavioural response of urban birds to COVID-19 lockdown

“…During the lockdown, human presence and activities decreased drastically (electronic supplementary material, figure S1, table S1), being this especially notable during rush hours, which almost disappeared [27,30,36]. During the spring in Spain, morning rush hour matches with the first hours of light, when birds are expected to be especially communicative [42,63,72].…”

“…In addition to the birds’ rapid behavioural response to the anomalous environmental conditions during the lockdown, observers had certainly enhanced opportunities to detect birds during this period. Urban areas were quieter than usual [27-30], improving the chances of listening the birds [34,39,40,70]. Moreover, absence of people outdoors allowed for the display of shy and distrustful behaviours [5], facilitating bird observations, especially for those less singing species, as the magpie ( Pica pica ) or the yellow-legged gull ( Larus michahellis ).…”

“…Hence, birds’ detectability during 2020 could be higher just as a by-product of a reduced interference in urban birdwatching of the human activities during the shutdown (e.g., traffic, pedestrians, factories, etc. [30,36,37]). However, these improved conditions for urban birdwatching were heavily constrained by the fact that observers were forced to stay at their homes and their sampling area was reduced to what they could see from there.…”

“…Overall, the measures have contributed to a global diminishing of human activities [24]. This abrupt and dramatic disruption of most human social and economic activities have already had quantifiable effects on urban environments by marked reductions in air pollution [25-27] and noise [28-30]. One of the most noticeable and generalized measure has been applying certain degree of population lockdown, which renders our city streets empty and virtually silent.…”