Stadtlärm-A distributed System for Noise Level Measurement and Noise Source Identification in a Smart City Environment

Various types of acoustic scenes such as railway, road, airplane and industrial noise, construction sites, open air concerts, sport events and natural noise sources contribute to the overall rising noise perception in cities. While railway, road, airplane, industrial, and construction noise are well understood, leading to standards on how to access, and are legally regulated, the knowledge and the legal rules for other sources are incomplete. For musical events, there exist regulations to protect both musician and audience, but no rules for the total sound emission. Noise caused by children in schools and kindergarten by intention is neglected. Noise caused by nature, for instance from singing birds and waterfalls in general is accepted by everybody, but barking dogs and agricultural noise (cocks and chicken, cows, ...) is usually “regulated” by court order on a more or less subjective basis.