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Statistical modeling of the spatial variability of environmental noise levels in Montreal, Canada, using noise measurements and land use characteristics

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 26, pages 597–605 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

The availability of noise maps to assess exposure to noise is often limited, especially in North American cities. We developed land use regression (LUR) models for LAeq24h, Lnight, and Lden to assess the long-term spatial variability of environmental noise levels in Montreal, Canada, considering various transportation noise sources (road, rail, and air). To explore the effects of sampling duration, we compared our LAeq24h levels that were computed over at least five complete contiguous days of measurements to shorter sampling periods (20 min and 24 h). LUR models were built with General Additive Models using continuous 2-min noise measurements from 204 sites. Model performance (adjusted R2) was 0.68, 0.59, and 0.69 for LAeq24h, Lnight, and Lden, respectively. Main predictors of measured noise levels were road-traffic and vegetation variables. Twenty-minute non-rush hour measurements corresponded well with LAeq24h levels computed over 5 days at road-traffic sites (bias: −0.7 dB(A)), but not at rail (−2.1 dB(A)) nor at air (−2.2 dB(A)) sites. Our study provides important insights into the spatial variation of environmental noise levels in a Canadian city. To assess long-term noise levels, sampling strategies should be stratified by noise sources and preferably should include 1 week of measurements at locations exposed to rail and aircraft noise.

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Acknowledgements

This project was funded by the Montreal Public Health Department and by the Quebec Institute of Public Health. We thank Louis Drouin for his valuable logistic support and Allan Brand for his help in preparing the NDVI and meteorological data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Martina S Ragettli & Audrey Smargiassi

  2. Public Health Department of Montreal, Quebec Institute of Public Health, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Martina S Ragettli, Sophie Goudreau, Céline Plante, Michel Fournier & Stéphane Perron

  3. Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland

    Martina S Ragettli

  4. University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Martina S Ragettli

  5. Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Marianne Hatzopoulou

  6. National Institute of Public Health of Quebec, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Audrey Smargiassi

  7. Public Health Research Institute of the University of Montreal (IRSPUM), Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Audrey Smargiassi

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  1. Martina S Ragettli
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  2. Sophie Goudreau
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  3. Céline Plante
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  4. Michel Fournier
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  7. Audrey Smargiassi
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Correspondence to Audrey Smargiassi.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology website

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Ragettli, M., Goudreau, S., Plante, C. et al. Statistical modeling of the spatial variability of environmental noise levels in Montreal, Canada, using noise measurements and land use characteristics. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 26, 597–605 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2015.82

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2015.82

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