Assessment of noise pollution from traffic in crowded highways of Ahwaz city (2011)

Introduction: Among the environmental pollutions, noise pollution, due to the potential physiologicaland psychological effects on humans, is of a particular importance. One of the most important sources of this pollution is transportation and cars traffic. the present study was implemented in 2011 with an overall goal of assessment of noise pollution from traffic in crowded highways of Ahwaz, Iran. Methods and Materials: In this descriptive study, 7 roads of the main routs of Ahwaz which have high density of traffic are selected and 112 measuring stations were chosen. In them,at measuring stations, on 4 days of week ,at three time periods totally 1344 measurments were recorded that including 6 parameters of traffic noise (Lmax , Lmm , L L10 , L50 , L90) and each measurement was eq 2 recorded for 30 minutes. After transferring datas to computer, Spss and Excel softwares were applied for statistical analysis and T—test and ANOVA were used for statistical tests. Results: The findings of this study showed , that average of equivalent Sound pressure level in all stations is equal to 72/62 in 2/53. There was a Statistically Significant difference between the mean Values of equivalent Sound Pressure level on different roads,different weekdays and Various daytimes jointly and (P<0.05). Also the results showed that average Values of L10 , L50 , L90 were 77.20 in 1/ 50,72.12 in 2.15 and 68.80 in 1/62 dBA respectively.Conclusion: According to the results, it was found that Ahwaz has a higher noise pollution in comparison with outdoor permissible limit standard in Iran. So, it should seriously be taken into consideration in order to control noise and prevent the effects.

Keywords:

Noise pollution , Noise Index , Traffic , Ahwaz