The sound of silence in Granada during the COVID-19 lockdown
Metadata
Show full item recordAuthor
Vida Manzano, Jerónimo; Almagro Pastor, José Antonio; García Quesada, Rafael; Aletta, Francesco; Oberman, Tin; Mitchell, Andrew; Kang, JianEditorial
De Gruyter
Materia
COVID-19 Lockdown Environmental noise Soundscape Cultural heritage
Date
2021Referencia bibliográfica
Manzano, J., Pastor, J., Quesada, R., Aletta, F., Oberman, T., Mitchell, A. & Kang, J. (2021). The “sound of silence” in Granada during the COVID-19 lockdown. Noise Mapping, 8(1), 16-31. https://doi.org/10.1515/noise-2021-0002
Sponsorship
Scientific Instrumentation Centre of the University of Granada; University College London; European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant (no. 740696) on “Soundscape Indices” (SSID)Abstract
Exceptional circumstances in the city of Granada
due to the COVID-19 lockdown have provided the opportunity to characterise the impact of humans on its urban
acoustic climate. Traditional environmental noise management and urban sound planning usually take into account noise sources in the city, such as industrial activities or road traffic noise, in model estimations, as well as
in empirical research. But trying to isolate human impact
by itself, human activity including social activity, walking,
talking or just going around the city, has always been a
difficult or even impossible task. The COVID-19 lockdown
measures have provided the opportunity to study urban
climate as never before, affected just by natural or animal noise sources. Previous soundscape research at some
iconic sites in the city of Granada carried out in 2019 before
the lockdown and a special measuring campaign carried
out at the same locations during the lockdown in 2020 offered valuable information on sound levels and local characteristics in order to carry out this comparison. Results
show a great change in environmental noise levels that is
interesting not only because of its magnitude, but also for
its implications, especially at those sites where social human activity was an identifying characteristic. Natural or
animal sounds became surprisingly evident at some study
sites, especially where road traffic noise dramatically decreased, leading to significantly lower background noise
levels. Important spectral changes are observed before and
during the lockdown, suggesting a shift from anthropic to
animal sources in the acoustic environment.