Peak and Non-Peak Hour Noise-Air Quality and State of Exposure to Noise-Air Pollution at Curbside Open-Air Microenvironment of Kolkata City, India
[1]
Anirban Kundu Chowdhury, Department of Civil Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.
[2]
Anupam Debsarkar, Department of Civil Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.
[3]
Shibnath Chakrabarty, Department of Civil Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.
In this study an effort was made to investigate the variation of combined Noise-Air quality and quality of combined exposure to Noise-Air pollution at curbside open-air microenvironments of Kolkata city, India in peak (day and evening) and non-peak (after-noon) traffic hours. Accordingly two sets of data (in summer and in winter) on air quality in terms of concentration of PM2.5 and NO2 (μg/m3, 24-h-TWA), traffic noise level [Leq dB(A), 8-h-TWA], and traffic volume (vehicles/4-h) were collected from the microenvironments of 38 locations of the city in day (08:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon), after-noon (12:00 noon – 04:00 p.m.) and evening (04:00 p.m. – 08:00 p.m.) traffic hours. Corresponding meteorological data on air temperature (°C), relative humidity (%) and wind speed (km/h) was recorded form a roof-top automated weather monitoring station. Data of the two seasons of respective traffic hours and station were averaged prior to any mathematical analysis to wipe out the seasonal variation in observations. Combine Noise-Air quality of the microenvironment of the city was determined in terms of the City Noise-Air index. The combined Noise-Air quality of the microenvironments of the city was the worst (0.39±0.26) in peak (evening) and the best (0.44±0.22) in non-peak (after-noon) traffic hour. Overall, the combined Noise-Air quality of the microenvironments was ‘Poor’ to ‘Fair’ throughout the traffic hours. ‘Very-weak’ to ‘weak’ positive correlation between concentration of the air pollutant(s) and traffic noise level throughout the traffic hours indicated limited chances of correlated exposure to the environmental stressors at the microenvironments of the city. Quality of combined exposure to Noise-Air pollution was determined in terms of the combined exposure factor (CEF). ‘Very good’ quality of combined exposure (1.53±0.55, 1.66±0.54, and 1.38±0.43 respectively in day, after-noon and evening traffic hours) to Noise-Air pollution was observed throughout the traffic hours at the microenvironments of the city.
Curbside Open-Air Microenvironment, Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient, City Noise-Air Index, Combined Exposure Factor (CEF)
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