Sound Pollution Monitoring System and Awareness Creation in Modern Cities: A Case Study

Due to excessive sound levels throughout Dhaka, sound pollution has become one of the primary causes of environmental pollution. Nowadays, the sound level exceeds the safe parameter of people’s hearing and health. Proper assessment of sound level in Dhaka is required to address this pollution adequately. To this end, this paper proposes a systematic approach including an updated data set of sound levels to assess sound pollution throughout Dhaka city. Following the methodology, a survey was conducted by selecting central locations and measuring the sound levels at those locations throughout the city. Moreover, we divided Dhaka city into two parts, i.e., Dhaka North and Dhaka South. The sound level meter Lutron SL-4012 is utilized for collecting data from the selected locations choosing peak hours. The findings show that all the monitored places are facing critical sound pollution. A few highly polluted areas such as Newmarket, Shahbagh, Paltan, Gulistan, Motijheel from Dhaka South and Mohammadpur Beribadh, Gabtoli, Farmgate, Kawran Bazar, Mohakhali from Dhaka North are also identified. Moreover, this paper also proposes a potential sound mitigation approach involving device-based sound metering and displaying to reduce sound pollution. The intended device will continuously monitor the sound level of the specific location from the side of the roadway and show awareness messages via a large display. This paper contributes significantly by providing a comprehensive and updated overview of sound pollution throughout Dhaka city. Furthermore, the proposed solution has the potential to raise public awareness and minimize the dangerously high sound level in Dhaka city upon large-scale deployment.