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To comply with environmental noise regulations, Newcastle International Airport needed to manage and reduce environmental noise where necessary, and preserve the current noise level where it was already acceptable. NoiseDesk enabled them to do this efficiently while freeing staff for community engagement activities.

Proactively and continuously addressing community concerns is critical to the growth of your airport. By engaging communities with transparent information about airport operations and environmental impacts you can build greater acceptance from stakeholders around the airport.

Airport CEOs are acutely aware that community concern about airport noise presents one of the biggest threats to the future of their airports. Without careful management, they know that noise concerns have the potential to trigger operating restrictions and frustrate expansion plans.

This primary focus on noise exposure reduction spawned a new profession of Airport Noise Officers in the 1990s, typically skilled in aviation and acoustic analysis, working tirelessly to fine-tune the operation of their airport to minimise noise impact.

Airport Noise and Operations Management Systems (ANOMS) evolved quickly in the 1990s and 2000s to provide the powerful measurement and analysis tools needed to support this technically focused work. These systems rarely saw the light of day and were typically operated by technical experts.

Continuous, unattended noise monitoring systems can immediately alert you should noise levels exceed defined criteria. Once alerted to an exceedance, operators can act to return levels to compliance. This approach has two significant limitations. Firstly, the operator can only take action after the breach has occurred and therefore systems are only able to inform owners about problems that have occurred in the past, rather than allowing them to maintain compliance. Secondly, the noise limit exceedances might not be due to specific noise from the operator but from unrelated, residual noise in the often-complex noise climates around the particular site and will then be the cause for a false positive. Compliance breaches are frequently triggered by aircraft overflights, road traffic or community sources. Modern monitoring systems enable users to view noise characteristics and listen to the noise breach to determine the source and act if necessary. However, this approach can create a significant number of false positives each taking up operator time to address. A previous paper by the authors described how airport noise management systems have addressed this problem by combining data from other systems, and how different techniques are required in urban & industrial noise management. This paper describes developments in these techniques and gives examples of techniques that allow operators to take action before a compliance breach occurs, and to reduce the number of false positive alerts.
PACS no. 43.50.Rq, 43.50.Sr, 43.50.Yw

Continuous, unattended noise monitoring systems can immediately alert you should noise levels exceed defined criteria. Once alerted to an exceedance, operators can act to return levels to compliance. This approach has two significant limitations. Firstly, the operator can only take action after the breach has occurred and therefore systems are only able to inform owners about problems that have occurred in the past, rather than allowing them to maintain compliance.

Secondly the noise limit exceedances might not be due to specific noise from the operator but from unrelated, residual noise in the often complex noise climates around the site. Compliance breaches are frequently triggered by aircraft overflights, road traffic or community sources.

Modern monitoring systems enable users to view noise characteristics and listen to the noise breach to determine the source and take action if it is relevant. However, this approach can create significant false positives each taking up operator time to address. This paper describes how airport noise management systems have addressed this problem by combining data from other systems. It also shows how different techniques are required in urban & industrial noise management, giving examples of techniques that allow operators to take action before a compliance breach occurs.

Keywords: Environmental noise management, monitoring, compliance I-INCE Classification of Subjects Number(s): 52, 52.1, 52.5, 72.1

Any measurement is meaningless without an uncertainty or tolerance associated with it. All measured numbers contain errors, and as such have an associated uncertainty. Disturbing as it is to an engineer, it is actually not possible to measure anything exactly.

One definition of uncertainty is “A parameter, associated with the result of a measurement that characterizes the dispersion of the values that could be reasonably attributed to the measurand” (the “true” value). The concept of the measurand (what you are trying to assess) is important. A practical definition of uncertainty is “Quantifying the quality of the assessment”. Uncertainty is useful because it makes you think about what could be affecting your result. Uncertainty determination is increasingly being demanded in reports by legislation and by standards.

Uncertainty is a statistical concept, in itself not particularly difficult to understand. However when we are talking about the uncertainty of an environmental noise measurement, things do become tricky since it is difficult to apply statistics to the many real life variables that we are confronted with when we are out on a measurement job.

Environmental compliance is good for business. Monitoring noise, vibrations and air quality at your mine reduces complaints from the community and maintains your workers’ health. It also improves productivity and stakeholder relations.

Backed by field measurements, this paper provides a practical look at the effect of weather conditions on noise levels in order to raise awareness of the importance of meteorology in noise measurements. This paper references the requirements for measuring meteorology in BS 4142:20141 and compares those requirements to legislation from other countries, focusing on the propagation of sound rather than spurious noise created at the microphone. Whether short- or long-term measurements are considered, variations due to weather can add considerably to measurement uncertainty and should not be overlooked.

In 1998 Birmingham City Council (BCC) in the United Kingdom commissioned a pilot study that lead to a city wide Noise Map taking into respects the road and rail net as well as a terrain model and the buildings. Most of the model data was provided in a GIS system based on Ordnance Survey data.

Grid results of noise levels were imported back into GIS and in a second phase the GIS system was used to assess the noise impact on the population.

The unique alphanumeric ‘Ordnance Survey Addresspoint Reference’ or OSAPR was chosen as the common ‘geo-reference’ for dwellings.

Façade point calculations of each dwelling helped to provide a database of buildings and related noise levels. This was used to define average and extreme noise exposures per dwelling. Two main data sources of population data per dwelling were linked with these results in a relational database. GIS has since been used to query these results for various aspects.

The camera used with Sentinel is  a professional and affordable fixed camera suitable for a wide range of applications and is supplied in an outdoor housing, providing IP66 protection and operation in a wide range of temperatures between -20°C to 50°C (-4°F to 122°F). The camera provides great levels of detail even in scenes with very complex light conditions and, thanks to the automatic IR-cut filter, it can deliver images both day and night.

Environmental noise management, with real-time data collection, processing and presentation, helps operators not only meet their noise limit obligations, but can also help avoid problems. For industrial applications such as construction sites, petrochemical plants, waste recycling plants, mines and ports, there are a wide variety of sources of specific sound, for which, to be separated from residual sound, needs more advanced analysis. Traditional noise event detection is often not suitable for the above applications where the sources have more variable noise signatures. A 2nd generation event technique, Noise Alerts, provides greater flexibility by processing and combining any real-time input data to alert staff and immediately provide additional data that enables troubleshooting and timely identification and resolution of issues.

Real-time monitoring of noise and weather, and correlating data from multiple locations is increasingly used to efficiently manage environmental noise compliance and impact.

This paper will describe Noise Alerts based on the combination of noise and weather and on the correlation of noise levels from multiple locations. It will describe some of the pre-requisites for robust and accurate alerting, and will provide examples of how this can help to efficiently manage environmental noise and thus help build community tolerance.

Environmental noise standards and legislation are typically based on the principles of noise monitoring instead of noise management. There is a crucial difference between these principles. Monitoring, being after the fact, can only inform about past problems and is usually based on relatively simple legal limits rather than on the current situation. Management, however, can avoid problems and, in addition, capture trends reflecting what’s currently happening. There is also a mismatch between what standards and legislation permit and what modern technology can provide through broad band communication, the internet, mobile phones, and increasing computing power. Real-time monitoring of noise, weather and process parameters, advanced assessment parameters, comparison with predictions, etc, and communicating effectively with the public are increasingly used to efficiently manage environmental noise compliance and impact. This enables operators to prevent noise exceedances and optimize relations with the surrounding community and authorities. This paper will provide examples of how real-time information, predictive alerting, correlation of different data sets and cooperation with the surrounding community can help to efficiently manage environmental noise compliance, impact and to build community tolerance, providing an even better way to deal with noise issues than simply following the letter of current standards and legislation.

The construction of infrastructure and new buildings risks causing significant impact on the neighbourhood, particularly for major infrastructure projects. Due to local community concerns, construction activities are often subject to operational restrictions. To effectively operate within these restrictions, instrumentation is often deployed to monitor noise and / or vibration. An alternative approach to the purchasing and operating costly equipment to monitor compliance is available through Managed Services offering:

• Technology innovation enabling simultaneous noise and vibration monitoring
• Manpower and cost reductions in monitoring resulting in a more economically attractive approach to traditional noise monitoring

Construction is forecast to grow by 85% by 2030. Large infrastructure projects such as subways, sewers, roads and railways, driven by population growth and increased urbanisation, are often in close proximity to established residential communities. Such projects require sustained work lasting several years and can cause significant noise nuisance and risk structural damage, both leading to litigation. Both nuisance and damage have the potential to introduce project delays further prolonging impact and significantly increasing project cost for contractors.
To help mitigate these risks, contractors are increasingly turning to continuous noise and vibration monitoring to ensure that the impact from construction activity is kept within guidelines, claims of damage can be dealt with easily, communities are impacted less and projects finish on time.
This paper will look at how noise and vibration monitoring around construction sites is addressed around the world. Which legislation it falls under, what assessment methodology and parameters are used, and how measurement data is used, assessed, presented and reported. Examples from around the world are included. It highlights the impact of the above on system design. Keywords: Building vibration, Construction noise, Noise management I-INCE Classification of Subjects Number(s): 52, 71, 72, 80

BHP Billiton Worsley Alumina Pty Ltd (BWAPL) consists of mining operations located near the town of Boddington, a 51km conveyor linking to an alumina refinery located in Worsley and a port load out facility located in Bunbury. BWAPL mining operations expanded in 2012, resulting in mining operations taking place much closer to a number of residential properties in the community and closer to the township of Boddington. Given the proximity of the mining operation to these sensitive receptors, noise was identified early on as a high risk to the operations that needed to be proactively managed to ensure that BWAPL’s environmental and social licences to operate were maintained. BWAPL adapted Brüel & Kjær’s Noise Sentinel monitoring system to monitor noise generated by mining operations and ensure that the impact on near neighbours was minimised. This was achieved by incorporating alert systems that allowed for proactive management. This paper will cover the compliance parameters required to be measured; the adaptations applied to the software and the key project challenges that were overcome. On the basis of the experiences gained and the positive outcomes achieved through implementing the Noise Sentinel system, BWAPL received a Highly Commended award at the 2013 BHP Billiton Health, Safety, Environment and Community Awards in the Environment category.

Keywords: Mining, Environmental Noise

City noise management involves a variety of disciplines such as planning, mapping, action plans, policing, complaint management, abatement and public awareness. With the wide availability of mobile broadband internet access coupled with low cost noise sensors, many authorities and researchers are eager to use sound sensor networks for these tasks. A sensor network can be defined as a group of specialized transducers and processing with a communications infrastructure and is intended to monitor and record conditions at diverse locations, connected to a central software. This definition covers a wide range of different possibilities, designs and components such as MEMS microphones, processing software, type approved instrumentation, smart phones, etc. However, are all networks suitable for all tasks? Many sensors trade off measurement precision to reduce cost and enable an increase in number of measurement points within a budget. This paper describes different sensor classes and implementation strategies. It discusses the relative merits of different sensors and describes what is important to take account of when implementing these networks for application to one or multiple noise management tasks, outlining what each can be used for and what they shouldn’t be used for. Aspects covered include architecture, and practical applicability. The paper concludes with recommendations for using different smart networks and for further research. PACS no. 43.58.+z, 43.50.+y

Long term monitoring of noise from airports, industrial facilities and construction projects has been well established over many years. The systems monitor noise levels at various points around the facility, feed the data back to a central system where data can be summarized and any breaches in compliance criteria are reported. These systems are passive by nature; they simply report what happened giving little opportunity to do anything to prevent breaches in the first place. Should breaches occur, attendance at the site is typically necessary to investigate before advice on mitigation can be given to prevent future breaches of compliance.

Technology advances in how data is captured, what data is captured and how it is accessed now means that in a large number of cases investigation can be achieved remotely without the need for site visits. This makes the process more efficient, lower cost, and much more immediate. Technology can now deliver results in real time that can help to prevent breaches occurring in the first place.

This paper outlines the technology advances and suggests how they will help to change the way noise consultants can deliver more monitoring services over a wider geographical area with fewer staff whilst simultaneously providing a better quality result

Details about our simple and effective Vibration Monitoring Terminal features, benefits and technical infromation

Optimize wind farm operations while enhancing community relations and limiting environmental impact.

Assessing noise, dust and air quality levels is vital for waste management businesses to show regulatory compliance and improve community relations.

Port activities can generate noise and air quality concerns from both a health and nuisance perspective. Like all heavy industries, ports must prove environmental regulatory compliance in order to optimize operations.

Know your impact to reduce the risk of structural damage, equipment failure and physical harm from excessive vibration.

Efficient noise logging you can trust during compliance investigations or planning new developments.

Improve your airport’s community relations by increasing knowledge and setting expectations about airspace usage trends.

Monitor noise impact to comply with regulations.  Build community support and avoid operating constraints by showing you’re meeting your environmental obligations.

Build community trust through transparent noise and flight track information.

Powerful and intuitive noise calculation and mapping software for predicting and managing environmental noise.

Outsource noise office services to maximize sustainable growth.

Airports must proactively address community concerns relating to overflights and noise in order to nurture support for sustainable growth. Enable your community to easily access simple-to-understand 3-D images about aircraft paths to build knowledge and tolerance.

Assess greenhouse gas emissions to increase efficiency and support for operational growth.

Effortlessly manage large volumes of complaints while communicating the right insights to the community and decision makers.

Environmental monitoring and management is vital to effectively plan and grow your oil and gas operations. Failure to maintain regulatory compliance or losing community acceptance can cost your project time and money.

As a consultant, you often juggle multiple projects for multiple clients in multiple locations. Alleviate your project workload and go beyond remote access of data with Sentinel, our full-service solution that “partners” with you to help efficiently manage environmental monitoring projects.

Balance your operational and community impact with Sentinel, an unattended environmental monitoring and management service that helps mine operators maximize growth.

Maintaining high-quality patient care during hospital construction can be difficult. Sustain your facility’s customer approval rating by decreasing environmental disturbances affecting patient comfort and safety.

Let the show go on while mitigating noise impact on nearby residents. Festivals, live music venues and other events need to maintain a balance between business and the noise impacting neighbors.

Maintain balance between business growth and community noise impact.  Sentinel helps municipalities effectively monitor their environment to identify compliance issues and improve community engagement.

Maximize construction operations while limiting environmental impact. If not managed properly, construction sites can trigger nuisance complaints. In extreme cases, regulatory authorities may be brought in to impose operating restrictions or halt construction – delaying progress and increasing costs.

Sentinel provides long-term, unattended environmental monitoring and management to help you maximize business growth while minimizing community impact. The versatile, web-based subscription service is designed to deliver confidence and cost certainty relating to noise, vibration, dust and air quality compliance.

Airport expansion, airspace redesign, changing community sensitivities and operational inefficiencies are increasingly affecting an airport’s ability to grow.

If you’ve seen one airport… you’ve seen one airport. Your noise program is as unique as your airport. We offer a range of products and services to individualize your ANOMS system.

Noise concerns are often the biggest obstacle to an airport’s growth. Annoyance is about more than just noise exposure. Nurture your airport’s social licence to operate and grow with accurate, unimpeachable data that efficiently supports your noise action plan.

We partner with airports to conceive, implement and evolve individual noise management programs. Our expert advice, innovative products and professional services are unrivalled in the industry. More than 250 airports worldwide use our proven solutions developed from 30 years of experience.

With airspace changes increasing, noise complaints are on the rise. Handling the volume of complaints is rapidly becoming an unmanageable burden on noise office staff.

Capture ATC instructions to enhance insight into deviations, and improve track-keeping statistics and noise abatement procedure compliance, with the ATC Voice Recorder.

The relentless need for more airspace capacity and reduced airline costs is driving massive change in flight procedures. While noise models may indicate there’s no significant impact from changes, your community might perceive otherwise. ANMOD helps you perform airport noise monitoring when and where you need it.

TechMDinc needed to monitor noise during a weekend-long music festival at Rose Bowl Stadium in California. The company required a self-contained system with enough power for the event’s entire duration without any in-person intervention.

Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA Mumbai) applies a balanced approach for identifying and analyzing noise levels in order to reduce its impact on the surrounding community. The airport required a comprehensive system to monitor sound levels and report compliance with the latest national and international aviation legislation.

For Manchester Airports Group (M.A.G), upgrading their noise management technology was a unique opportunity to optimize operations across its network of UK airports and build on its well-established Corporate Social Responsibility program.

The entertainment industry is critical to the livelihood of Austin, Texas. Equally important is the quality of life for Austin’s residents. The city required a noise monitoring solution that would allow it to continue hosting major events while minimizing noise impact on neighbors.

Vale S.A. needed a noise monitoring system to measure, communicate, report and reduce its noise impact on nearby communities.

Project C501 Moorgate Shaft is part of the Crossrail infrastructure project that will create a new rail link across London from west to east. Over 42km of underground tunnels will link London’s main business centers in a project that is expected to start operation in 2018 and be fully operational in 2019.

The Panum Institute Science Tower is a new construction development for the University of Copenhagen medical center, to house an international biomedical center, research and laboratory facilities. When the Environmental Impact Study for this large building project specified day- and night-time noise limits, the construction company turned to us.

CINOTECH Consultants Limited is a consulting firm specializing in environmental management, feasibility studies and system integration. The consultancy was contracted by MTR Corporation Limited to assess ground-borne noise from tunneling works at its Whampoa railway station project.

The City of Seattle received numerous complaints from neighbors near an urban recycling plant, but noise levels never breached regulations when measurements were taken. Seattle needed a short-term noise monitoring service that collected data 24 hours a day to detect if acceptable levels were being exceeded so it could respond accordingly.

Redeveloping the historic Hollinger Mine into an open-pit operation at Porcupine Gold Mines has raised concerns about environmental impacts in the community of Timmins. Although mines have been operating for over 100 years in the area, close proximity to the city means a greater emphasis must be placed on mitigating the impacts on all stakeholders.

Port Metro Vancouver sought to enhance community relations by better monitoring and managing its noise impact. As Canada’s largest and busiest port, it’s critical that it maintain maximum operations and business growth while transparently communicating and engaging with the public.

A project to modernise Twickenham railway station before the 2015 Rugby World Cup faced neighbors who are sensitive to noise. An outsourced monitoring solution ensured legal compliance and provided a web-based interface. Sharing data with the community and construction company built trust, reducing complaints and helping to avoid delays and fines.

Noise monitoring does not require a large amount of expertise or investment in expensive equipment. DELTA learned how measurement projects with high technology demands could easily be solved with a Sentinel On Demand subscription.

Tomingley Gold Operations (TGO) needed to control their noise impact on the nearby community of Tomingley. The mine has great focus on keeping a good relationship with their neighbours and noise control is a prerequisite for obtaining and keeping their Project Approval License. TGO is using Noise Sentinel for 24/7 noise monitoring and management, in combination with a remotely located, independent noise consultant.

Eurocontrol S.A. is a market leader in inspection, quality control, testing and technical assistance related to the Regulatory Inspection industry. Eurocontrol was commissioned by Acciona, a leader in the development and management of infrastructure and renewable energy, to monitor noise at a construction site where it needed to extend operations into the night.

England’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) commissioned the world’s largest noise mapping project, calculating sound levels across all of England’s major transportation and urban areas.

Details about Predictor-LimA's features, benefits and technical information.

Details about the Blast Overpressure Microphone add-on for the Vibration Monitoring Terminal

Details about Sentinel and Sentinel On Demand's features, benefits and technical information.

Details about Sentinel's directional noise monitoring features, benefits and technical information.

Details about Sentinel's dust and air quality monitoring features, benefits and technical information.

Details about Noise Logger features, benefits and technical information.

Details about our Noise Monitoring Terminal family features, benefits and technical information.

Details about our portable Noise Monitoring Terminal's features, benefits and technical information.

The majority of the world’s major commercial airports, and a significant number of airport bases, have adopted processes and systems to manage the impact of operational noise from the airport onto surrounding communities.

Shale gas has transformed the energy market in the United States where drilling is underway in 17 states, with more than 80,000 wells drilled or permitted since 2005. Deposits elsewhere in the world are under varying degrees of exploration.

The main environmental impacts of the process are water usage, waste water management, methane emissions, groundwater and soil contamination. These are generally addressed as part of national environmental regulations and strong stakeholder engagement is critical in addressing concerns.

Noise impact is also a significant issue. Drilling typically takes place 24 hours a day, and where drilling is close to residential areas there is a significant risk of disturbance triggering complaints.