High ambient noise levels in Vadodara City, India ...

Rev Environ Health 2016; 31(4): 409–414

Neha Singh*, Hitesh Dhiman, Sadaf Shaikh, Purvish Shah, Roma Sarkar and Shashin Patel

High ambient noise levels in Vadodara City, India, affected by urbanization DOI 10.1515/reveh-2016-0057 Received October 22, 2016; accepted October 27, 2016

Abstract: The present research was conducted to study the urbanization of Vadodara city and to monitor the ambient noise level in the industrial, commercial, residential and silence zones of the city. A settlement map created by unsupervised classification for the land use and land cover study of Vadodara city clearly shows the increasing pattern of urbanization in its central part, which may be the result of urban sprawl due to migration of people from the rural to the urban areas. The fluctuation in ambient noise level was recorded using an A-weighted sound level meter in all the four zones of Vadodara city for 3 h at regular intervals of 15 min on 3 consecutive days at the same time. The results showed the highest equivalent noise level of 93.7 dBA in the commercial zone followed by 85.5 dBA in the industrial zone, 73.2 dBA in silence zone, and 70.2 dBA in the residential zone. The values of noise level were high in all the zones of the city increasing remarkably over the prescribed limit given in the Noise Pollution (Control and Regulation) Rules, 2000. Continuous exposure to such high level of noise may lead to detrimental effect on people. Keywords: health; noise level; population; urban sprawl.

Introduction Urbanization is defined as the movement of people from rural to urban areas with population growth equating to urban migration. Urbanization is the result of industrialization because for urban development, the location of industry is very favorable as it brings roads, people, public services, houses and raw materials which gives rise to the urban centers. Urban centers provide a better economic *Corresponding author: Neha Singh, Department of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat-390002, India, E-mail: [email protected] Hitesh Dhiman, Sadaf Shaikh, Purvish Shah, Roma Sarkar and Shashin Patel: Department of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat-390002, India

focal point not only to the industrial firm or related industries but to the entire hinterland of urban centers. Noise pollution has emerged as a major pollutant affecting the quality of life in urban areas across the globe. Noise pollution in an urban environment originates from road traffic, railways, construction activities, automobile horns, loudspeakers, sirens, industrial set-ups, etc. In most of the studies carried out in different parts of the world on noise pollution, road traffic has been observed as the major source of noise (1, 2). Omidvari and Nouri (3) reported that vehicular traffic contributes to about 55% of the total urban noise. Noise has been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the major pollutants affecting the health of the human population (4). The impact of noise on physiological functions and psychological processes depends on its characteristics, intensity and duration of exposure. Many surveys related to noise pollution level have been conducted for several cities of the world (5, 6) and have clearly shown the scale of discomfort that noise causes in people’s life (7, 8). Chronic environmental noise causes a wide variety of adverse health effects like noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), sleep disturbance, diabetes (9), annoyance (10), increase in heart rate and high blood pressure (11), increased level of stress hormone leading to depression (12, 13). Long-term exposure to noise level > 75 dBA can decrease the ability of the ear to perceive sound by causing metabolic changes in sensory hair cells within the cochlea (14). There has been a considerable increase in noise from anthropogenic sources during last 100 years (15). Noise Pollution (Control and Regulation) Rules, 2000 was published under the notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Environment and Forests to monitor the ambient air quality standard with respect to the noise. In India, for last few decades due to the substantial growth in the number of vehicles, expansion of the road network, industrialization and urbanization, the problems of noise pollution issues have been reported from most cities. Assessment of noise pollution and its impact have been reported from urban traffic environment in Nagpur (1), different zones of Kolhapur in Maharashtra (16), in and around the sensitive zone in North India (17), and Allahabad city (18). Vadodara is known as the Gateway to the Golden Corridor as it joins Mumbai with Delhi and Ahmedabad. Today Vadodara is one of the most important centers for textile, Authenticated | [email protected] author's copy Download Date | 12/7/16 4:39 PM

410 Singh et al.: High ambient noise levels in Vadodara City, India, affected by urbanization chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceuticals industries. Apart from being an historic and royal city, Vadodara is also known for its renowned educational institution The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Because of an increase in industrial areas, population, vehicles and other anthropogenic activities, the city has started experiencing noise pollution problems and it is only natural that the severity of noise pollution will increase in the coming years. Although a significant number of studies have been done in various cities of India, not much data is available on noise pollution for Vadodara. Saloni and Maneesha (19) evaluated the adverse effects of noise on homemakers of selected areas in Vadodara. Tandel et al. (20) did a review on developing a road traffic noise prediction model for different categories of roads in Vadodara city. This study has been made to examine the change in the area under settlement through land use and land cover change with respect to the increase in population and to investigate the ambient noise level in Vadodara city in Gujarat State.

Study area Vadodara city is situated in the state of Gujarat in the western part of India, located at 22.3000°N and 73.2000°E at an average elevation of 39 meters above mean sea level (Figure 1). It is the 18th largest city in India with an area of 159.95 km2. According to Census 2011, the human population of Vadodara is 2,065,771 (21). Vadodara was considered to be a cultural and educational center until the 1960s but with the establishment of several companies like Sarabhai Chemicals, etc. in 1940s, industrialization came to the fore

with about 288 factories by 1962. Vadodara became one of India’s foremost industrial centers with the establishment of the Gujarat Refinery in 1962 and with several factories dealing with raw material availability, product demand, and the skillful mobilization of financial and material resources. The establishment of large scale industries gave rise to a number of smaller enterprises and better employment opportunities. This attracted a large number of skilled and unskilled job seekers to the city from both the rural part of the district and other parts of India.

Methodology Study of urban expansion through land use land cover study Study of changes in the land use of Vadodara city was done with the help of satellite images to understand the pattern of urban expansion. Cloud free satellite data from the years 1975, 2000 and 2014 were used to interpret the increase in area under settlement. The Landsat data which are freely available for the commercial, industrial, civilian, military and educational communities were downloaded from the USGS Earth Explorer website (22). Table 1 gives the details of the number of bands, spatial resolution of multispectral bands and the date of acquisition of the Landsat satellite images used in the study. The Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis technique (ISODATA) of unsupervised classification was used for the land use and land cover classification of the image using the Erdas Imagine 9.1 software. This technique requires minimum user inputs and performs an entire classification and recalculates statistics (23). It uses minimum spectral distance to assign a cluster for each pixel. Parameters assigned to the classification of each image were kept the same keeping the maximum number of classes at 50. After classification, the settlement area was mapped by merging and recoding the attributes of classified images by verifying the area using topographic maps (1:50,000 scale, provided by Survey of India) and Google Earth.

Measurement of noise and noise pollution indices Four different zones, i.e. industrial, commercial, residential and silent zones (as given in Noise Pollution Control and Regulation Rules, 2000) were selected for the monitoring of noise level in Vadodara city (Table 2). The sound level meter (Lutron, SL-4001) was

Table 1: Details of the images used in this study.

Figure 1: Study area.

Year

Data

1975 2000 2014

Landsat 2 Landsat 5 Landsat 8

Spectral Spatial resolution of bands multispectral bands 4 60 m 7 30 m 11 30 m

Date of aquisition

03-03-1975 21-04-2000 05-10-2014

Authenticated | [email protected] author's copy Download Date | 12/7/16 4:39 PM

Singh et al.: High ambient noise levels in Vadodara City, India, affected by urbanization 411 Table 2: Sampling locations for noise pollution monitoring in Vadodara. Sr. No

Zone (location name)

1. 2.

Industrial zone (Makarpura G.I.D.C) Commercial zone (Mandvi cross road)

3. 4.

Residential zone (Vasana) Silence zone (SSG hospital)

Characteristics Noisy milieu because of machines and manufacturing process One of the busiest zones of Vadodara. Mixed area consisting of a large number of shops and human dwellings Quiet area with less traffic and other movements 100 m around any hospital or educational area is considered as a silence zone

used to measure the ambient noise level at all the monitoring locations. It evaluates sound pressure linearly or on a weighted scale. It has a microphone, attenuator, preamplifier, an indicating meter and monitoring outputs. The observation at each location was made for 3 consecutive working days (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) by measuring the A-weighted noise level at interval of 15 min for 3 h. A sound level meter was installed at the height of 1.2 m using a tripod and the time set for measurement of noise level (dBA) was 1 min. Based on the preliminary survey of the sampling locations, the monitoring during daytime was selected from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the morning at industrial and commercial areas and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the evening in the residential and silent zones. The results of noise level and its variation is plotted in the graph for each zone. Equivalent noise level (Leq) represents the equivalent energy sound level of a steady state and invariable sound; it includes both intensity and length of all sounds occurring during a given period. Noise descriptors such as L10, L50, and L90 were also assessed to calculate the value of Leq using the formula. Leq = L 50 + [(NC)2 / 60]

Noise climate (NC) is the range over which the sound level is fluctuating in an interval of time and is assessed using the formula. NC = L10 − L90 L10, L50 and L90 are the level of sound exceeding 10%, 50%, and 90% of the total time of measurement or peak noise level, respectively.

Results and discussion Urban expansion Classification accuracy of the unsupervised classification was 81.2% for the year 1975, 83.6% (2000) and 85.8% (2014). Figure 2 shows the settlement area in the years 1975, 2000, and 2014 and it clearly displays the pattern of urbanization as the settlement section has increased

Figure 2: Settlement map for the years 1975, 2000 and 2014.


412 Singh et al.: High ambient noise levels in Vadodara City, India, affected by urbanization in the heart of the city, i.e. the middle portion. The area under settlement increased from 2587 hectares (1975) to 7921 hectares (2000) to 9486 hectares (2014). The presence of a renowned university, a railway station and several industries has led to the development of the central part of the city in last few decades. The build-up of several “megamalls” and commercial areas in the surroundings showed marked increase in the residential sector due to availabilty of all the facilities nearby. The population of Vadodara city has increased remarkably after the industrialization process as can be seen from the census data for the population. Table 3 shows the growth of the population for last 8 decades as per the data of Census, 1931 to Census, 2001. The last few decades, e.g. 1960–1970, 1970– 1980 and 1980 to 1990 has seen a population increase of

58%, 59% and 51%, respectively. This population increase has decreased gradually in last two decades to 32 and 38%, respectively, which could be attributed to a decrease in birth rate and less immigration. The last two decades faced several developmental constraints and deterioration leading to the decline in the industrial growth and reduced employment opportunities in Vadodara. It is strongly reflected in the decreasing poulation growth rate which may be the natural increase with less migration. This is also evident from the result of land use and land cover which shows the significant increase of the settlement areas from 1975 to 2000, and less increase from 2000 to 2014.

Table 3: Population growth of Vadodara.

Figure 3 shows the fluctuation of noise level measured at regular intervals of 15 min from the industrial, commercial, residential and silence zone of Vadodara city. The variations in the graph for the industrial zone indicates variation in noise level in the ambient air due to various kinds of activities taking place in the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation, Makarpura. A decrease in dBA values was observed at 8:45 a.m. due to workers taking their tea break. After the tea break, the workers continued their work and therefore the dBA values started increasing gradually. But on day 2 due to a power failure, the manufacturing process was halted which resulted in

Census

Population

% Increase

1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011

112,900 153,300 211,400 295,100 467,000 744,000 1,126,800 1,491,045 2,065,771

19.20% 35.80% 37.90% 39.60% 58.30% 59.30% 51.50% 32.30% 38.50%

Source: Historical census of India, census of world.

Ambient noise monitoring

Noise level at commercial zone

95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45

Day 1

dBA

dBA

Noise level at industrial zone

Day 2 Day 3

0

15

30

45

60

75

90 105 120 135 150 165 180

95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

0

15

30

45

60

Time, min

Day 2 Day 3

15

30

45

60

75

90 105 120 135 150 165 180

dBA

dBA

Day 1

0

90 105 120 135 150 165 180

Noise level at silence zone

Noise level at residential zone 95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45

75

Time, min

95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

0

15

30

Time, min

45

60

75

90 105 120 135 150 165 180

Time, min

Figure 3: Variation of noise level with time in different zones of the Vadodara city, India.


95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45

Industrial zone

L10 L50

dBA

95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45

L90 Leq Standard 1

2 Day

3

95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45

Residential zone

L10 L50 L90 Leq Standard 1

2

3

dBA

dBA

dBA

Singh et al.: High ambient noise levels in Vadodara City, India, affected by urbanization 413

Commercial zone


95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45

2 Day

3

Silence zone


2

3

Day

Day

Figure 4: Variation of noise indices in different zones of Vadodara city, India.

decreased dBA value towards the end of 3 h. The variation in the graph for the commercial zone indicates the traffic movement at the Mandavi cross road which lies in the center of Vadodara city. As this commercial area contains various offices and a large number of shopping centers, the noise levels were high at 10:00 a.m. because of high traffic movement as 9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. is the peak time for such activities. It is also considered as a commercial cum residential area. The graph for the Vasana residential area display the vast variation in dBA values because of the day to day activities. The dBA values for all 3 days are low during 4:00 p.m. because at that time, there is minimum movement in residential areas. The values gradually increase till 6:00 p.m. when people come back from work. Also during this evening time, due to the Azaan from the nearby mosque, the value increases. The graph for the noise level in the silence zone show the data monitored for noise level at Sir Sayajirao General (SSG) hospital. The vast variation in dBA values can be seen because of the day to day activities of patients, doctors, students, etc. The highest dBA values were seen on day 1, as a huge number of patients were seen in the outpatient department on Mondays. The lowest dBA values were seen on day 2 in the nursing section. Noise indices, the Leq value and the standard given in the Noise Pollution Control and Regulation Rules, 2000 (Table 4) (24) are plotted in graph for each zone (Figure 4). The Leq value is nearly 85 dBA in the industrial and commercial areas, about 70 dBA in the residential and silence areas which is much more than prescribed limit of 75 dBA

Table 4: Environmental noise standard as prescribed in Noise Pollution Control and Regulation Rules, 2000. Types of area

Industrial area Commercial area Residential area Silence area

Environmental noise standard (Leq) in dBA Day time (06:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.)

Night time (10:00 p.m. to 06:00 a.m.)

75 65 55 50

70 55 45 40

(industrial zone), 65 dBA (commercial zone), 55 dBA (residential) and 50 dBA (silence zone) as can be seen from the graph in Figure 4. The high noise level in ambient air is the result of high population, increased amounts of vehicles, road traffic noise and honking of car horns. This study shows that the noise level has already reached an alarming level in Vadodara city and the continuous exposure of people to such a high level may cause chronic effects in the population. This study gives a valid reason for further research on the noise pollution in Vadodara for continuous and thorough monitoring of noise in the daytime as well as at night. Besides this, study for effects of noise pollution by demographic survey and collection of data from hospitals should be done to assess the actual impact of noise and to create the awareness about the precautionary measures. Authenticated | [email protected] author's copy Download Date | 12/7/16 4:39 PM

414 Singh et al.: High ambient noise levels in Vadodara City, India, affected by urbanization

Conclusion The present study was done to monitor the noise level in the ambient air of Vadodara city, India. The pattern of urbanization was also assessed using the satellite imagery for the years 1975, 2000 and 2014. The overall result on noise pollution in different zones of Vadodara city shows that the noise pressure level (Leq) was highly variable and significant due to diverse anthropogenic activities in these zones. In the study the Leq sequence obtained was as follows: commercial zone > industrial zone > residential zone > silence zone. Continuous exposure to such high levels on a regular basis may lead to annoyance, hearing disorders and other impacts depending upon the individual’s susceptibility and general health. The study reports the noise level on the regular days of the year, which increases during the festive months like Navratri, Ganesh Chaturthi, etc. On these occasions, use of loudspeaker for playing devotional songs at the Pandals varies from days to week according to the celebration. The industrialization and developmental activities led to the urban sprawl in Vadodara city which can be seen form the settlement map of the area. The increased number of people and increased number of vehicles has resulted in high ambient noise levels in the Vadodara city. Acknowledgments: The authors would like to acknowledge the Department of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda for providing the instruments and the laboratory facilities.

References 1. Vijay R, Sharma A, Chakrabarti T, Gupta R. Assessment of honking impact on traffic noise in urban traffic environment of Nagpur, India. J Environ Health Sci Eng 2015;13(10):1–9. 2. Banerjee D. Research on road traffic noise and human health in India: review of literature from 1991 to current. Noise Health 2012;14:113–8. 3. Omidvari M, Nouri J. Effects of noise pollution on traffic policemen. Int J Environ Res 2009;3(4):645–52. 4. World Health Organization (WHO). Burden of disease from environmental noise, Quantification by healthy life years lost in Europe. Denmark: WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2011. 5. Alberola J, Flindell H, Bullmore J. Variability in road traffic noise levels. European Commission, Environmental Noise Directive 2002/49/EC; Off J European Communities 2005;L189;12–25.

6. Bhosale BJ, Late A, Nalawade PM, Chavan SP, Mule MB. Studies on assessment of traffic noise level in Aurangabad city. Noise Health 2010;12:195–8. 7. Vidyasagar T, Rao N. Noise pollution levels in Visakhapatnam city (India). J Environ Sci Eng 2006;48(2):139–42. 8. Basner M, Babisch W, Davis A, Brink M, Clark C, et al. Auditory and non-auditory effects of noise on health. Lancet 2014;383(9925):1325–32. 9. Sørensen M, Andersen ZJ, Nordsborg RB, Becker T, Tjønneland A, et al. Long-term exposure to road traffic noise and incident diabetes: a cohort study. Environ Health Perspect 2013;121:217. 10. Babisch W, Pershagen G, Selander J, Houthuijs D, Breugelmans O, et al. Noise annoyance – a modifier of the association between noise level and cardiovascular health? Sci Total Environ 2013;452–453:50–7. 11. Haralabidis AS, Dimakopoulou K, Vigna-Taglianti F, Giampaolo M, Borgini A, et al. Acute effects of night-time noise exposure on blood pressure in populations living near airports. Eur Heart J 2008;29:658–64. 12. Meerlo P, Sgoifo A, Suchecki D. Restricted and disrupted sleep: effects on autonomic function, neuroendocrine stress systems and stress responsivity. Sleep Med Rev 2008;12(3):197–210. 13. Joo EY, Yoon CW, Koo DL, Kim D, Hong SB. Adverse effects of 24 hours of sleep deprivation on cognition and stress hormones. J Clin Neurol 2012;8:146–50. 14. Heinrich UR, Brieger J, Selivanova O, Feltens R, Eimermacher A, et al. COX-2 expression in the guinea pig cochlea is partly altered by moderate sound exposure. Neurosci Lett 2006;394:121–6. 15. Pandey V. Encyclopaedic dictionary of environmental pollution. New Delhi: Himalaya Publishing House, 1992. 16. Hunashal RB, Patil YB. Assessment of noise pollution indices in the city of Kolhapur, India. Procedia – Soc Behavior Sci 2012;37:448–57. 17. Ravindra K, Singh T, Tripathy JP, Mor S, Munjal S, et al. Assessment of noise pollution in and around a sensitive zone in North India and its non-auditory impacts. Sci Total Environ 2016;566–567:981–7. 18. Kumar N, James A, Nath S. Study on noise pollution level in parks of Allahabad city, India. Int Res J Environ Sci 2013;2(8):88–90. 19. Saloni P, Maneesha S. Adverse effects of noise on homemakers of selected area in Vadodara, India. J Environ Res Dev 2012;7(2):794–801. 20. Tandel D, Nihalani S, Parmar NB. Developing road traffic noise prediction model for different categories of roads in Vadodara city-A review. Int J Innov Res Sci Eng Technol 2016;2(1):415–7. 21. Historical Census of India. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Vadodara (accessed on 23/10/2016). 22. http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov (accessed on 21/03/2016). 23. Krishna Bahadur KC. Improving Landsat and IRS image classification: evaluation of unsupervised and supervised classification through band ratios and DEM in a mountainous landscape in Nepal. Remote Sens 2009;1:1257–72. 24. http://envfor.nic.in/downloads/public-information/noisepollution-rules-en.pdf (accessed on 23/10/2016).
