How to talk about noise with the neighborhood?
"What exactly do these decibels mean?" is a question that professionals often hear at public neighborhood meetings related to environmental permit / environmental impact assessment.
"Is 40 dB a lot or little?"
"What does the noise modeling say about the noise situation in my yard?"
Questions often arise from concerns that people feel. On the other hand, it also talks about the lack of mutual language between the parties.
Over the years, we have made presentations to industry and energy production for stakeholder/neighborhood events that address basic concepts related to sound and noise in a concrete and approachable way.
A presentation aimed at the stakeholders/neighborhood typically contains the following things:
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What is sound?
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How we detect sound?
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How is environmental noise measured?
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Basic vocabulary, e.g.
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Volume
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Speed of sound
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Pitch
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How many decibels? (Examples / recordings / live graphs of different volumes)
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Sound examples, for example; how a truck driving by, a snowmobile or a bird singing affects noise figures or, for example, what a wind power farm sound like from a kilometre away.
Noise is something that can arouse strong emotions in people. However, a mutual vocabulary and understanding of the characteristics of sound contributes to creating a genuine dialogue between the sides. It is known that researched information also contributes to the discussion.
Measuring environmental noise and the analysis of soundscapes are also part of the AuresSound™ services, as is regulatory reporting.
If a stakeholder/neighborhood meeting becomes necessary in the future, please send me or Roy a message: we will tailor the right package for you.
Antti Leskinen, CEO - antti.leskinen@apl.fi
Roy Hjort, Head of Reporting - roy.hjort@apl.fi
