Proceedings of the 10th Convention of the
European Acoustics Association
Forum Acusticum 2023


Politecnico di Torino
Torino, Italy
September 11 - 15, 2023





Session: A14-02: Soundscapes of the 'new normal' (post-COVID) - Part I
Date: Tuesday 12 September 2023
Time: 11:40 - 12:00
Title: Noise levels comparison before, during and after lock-down periods due to Covid-19 in Italy
Author(s): M. Carfagni, University of Florence, Via di S. Marta, 3, 50139 Florence, Italy
F. Borchi, University of Florence, Via di S. Marta, 3, 50139 Florence, Italy
C. Bartalucci, Vie en.ro.se. Ingegneria srl, Viale Belfiore 36, 50144 Firenze, Italy
L. Nencini, Blue Wave S.r.l., Via del Fonditore 344, 58022 Follonica, Italy
Pages: 1339-1346
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.61782/fa.2023.1156
PDF: https://dael.euracoustics.org/confs/fa2023/data/articles/001156.pdf
Conference proceedings
Abstract

The occurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for researchers and technicians around the world to study, qualitatively and quantitatively, the trend in noise levels during the various phases of the phenomenon. As part of the LIFE MONZA project, co-funded by the European Union, 10 smart and innovative sensors were installed in June 2017 to measure noise levels at as many significant locations in the city of Monza (Italy). Even following the conclusion of the project in June 2020, data acquisition continued on a regular basis by the municipality of Monza, following a training activity carried out by the University of Florence (both partners in the LIFE MONZA project together with ISPRA - Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research and Vie en.ro.se. Ingegneria). In 2020, an initial work was published on the comparison of noise levels measured by the sensors immediately before the start of the lock-down phase and during it. In the present study, authors propose a comparison with the levels measured in the subsequent phase in order to understand whether the pandemic experience may have generated new acoustic scenarios or whether the overcoming of its most acute phase has brought noise levels back to pre-pandemic ones.