Analysis of Noise Level in a Campus Area: Case Study for Gazi University Maltepe Campus

Introduction

According to Florence Nightingale “Unnecessary noise is the most cruel abuse of care which can be inflicted on either the sick or the well.” [1]. The word “noise” is derived from the Latin word "nausea," meaning “seasickness” or a “sensation of discomfort” and also defined as “unwanted sound”, which is among the most pervasive pollutants today [2]. Noise causes a variety of mental and physical effects relevant to health problems including hearing loss, insomnia and psychological deteriorations. Recently, several studies have been conducted that highway/road traffic has become a main reason of the noise pollution and produced many adverse health effects on humans [3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15].

quiet environment. In the first instance, efforts should be made to find a site that is situated in a comparatively quiet environment. At least the site should not be close to noisy highways, railways, etc [16]. In the scope of cognitive performance, noise may affect the learning behaviors of students, and very noisy places are not suitable for teaching. Several studies have been conducted on the influence of environmental noise upon the learning and working performance [17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22]. A number of studies have showed that exposure to environmental noise can lead to a decrease in cognitive performance including difficulties in communication, impaired attention, frustration, and noise annoyance on performance [17, 18, 19, 20, 21].

An increase emerged in the number of private vehicles regarding the increase in the number of people (students, academicians, and administrative personnel, etc.) on the campus. On Gazi University Maltepe campus, daytime teaching is offered in all departments while some departments also provide evening courses. Therefore, academic programs continue during daytime and evening hours. That means daytime and evening time noise distribution collectively holds crucial value in this area. The objectives of this study are to perform the noise level measurements and determine the noise generated at Gazi University Engineering Faculty campus on the academic setting.

Methodology

An Extech Instruments model number 407232 digital sound pressure level meters with measuring range of 30– 130 dB, accuracy of ±1.5 dB was used for the monitoring noise levels. A total of 16 sampling collection points was taken of readings and eight timings were chosen for the study: 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, 12 pm, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm and 4 pm to capture the high noise events of campus’ particular areas (Figure 2).

Click to enlarge

1) Campus Back Gate 2) Campus Front Gate 1 3) Campus Front Gate 2 4) Faculty Back Entrance 5) Faculty Front Entrance 6) Outside of Kesit Cafe 7) Back Garden 8) Front Side of Dean’s Office 9) Inside of Kesit Cafe 10) Simitci Cafe 11) Library 12) Hallway 13) Dining Hall 14) Canteen 15) Common Area 16) Inside of Dean’s Office

In this study, the aim was to determine the dimensions of noise pollution of Engineering Faculty Campus of Gazi University. For achieving this aim, the required measurements were collected in the areas that are divided into two sections as outdoor and indoor areas (Table 1).

Results and Discussion

The measurements collected in the open areas were analyzed by recording the maximum values with respect to every hour on Monday, which is determined the

85.

80.

$$ - 1 $$ $$ = \mathrm {红} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \mathrm {红} $$

$$ = \mathrm {红} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ - 1 $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ - 1 $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = 0 $$

$$ \mathrm {I} = \mathrm {I} _ {1} + \mathrm {I} _ {2} $$

75.

$$ = \mathrm {L i} + \mathrm {N a} ^ {+} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ - 1 $$

$$ \mathrm {法} = \mathrm {法} $$

$$ \mathrm {L} = \mathrm {L} _ {1} + \mathrm {L} _ {2} + \dots + \mathrm {L} _ {n} $$ $$ = \mathrm {红} $$ $$ \mathrm {L} = \mathrm {L} _ {1} + \mathrm {L} _ {2} + \dots + \mathrm {L} _ {n} $$ $$ = \mathrm {红} $$

70.

$$ = \mathrm {紫 蓝} $$

$$ = \mathrm {红} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \mathrm {红} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \mathrm {红} $$ $$ - 1 $$

$$ = \mathrm {紫 蓝} $$

$$ = 0 $$ $$ = \mathrm {紫 蓝} $$

$$ = \mathrm {紫 蓝} $$

$$ = \mathrm {紫 蓝} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ - 1 $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

60.

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ \mathrm {I} = \mathrm {I} _ {1} + \mathrm {I} _ {2} + \dots + \mathrm {I} _ {n} $$

9 a.m 10 a.m 11 a.m 12 p.m 1 p.m 2 p.m 3 p.m 4 p.m noisiest day in a week. There is a reason for measuring maximum values in this study that the values taken at random values are lower than the actual noise level and these values can be misleading. The measurements made in the closed areas were made by also recording the maximum values with respect to every hour on Monday, which is determined the noisiest day in a week. The values are shown on the table. These values are obtained during three days and their means were calculated. It can be seen that the lowest measurements were obtained in the morning hours especially at 9 am or 10 am because of the fact that the campus is not crowded at those hours due to the course schedule of students.

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

1) Campus Back Gate

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

2) Campus Front Gate 1

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

3) Campus Front Gate 2

$$ \mathrm {L i} + \mathrm {H} _ {2} \mathrm {O} = \mathrm {L i O} _ {2} + \mathrm {H} _ {2} \mathrm {S} $$ $$ = \mathrm {L i} + \mathrm {N a} ^ {+} $$

4) Faculty Back Entrance

$$ = \mathrm {蓝 紫} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

5) Facuty Front Entrance

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \mathrm {紫 蓝} $$

6) Outside of Kesit Cafe

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

7) Back Garden

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ Figure 3: Results of Outdoor Places.

85.

80.

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \mathrm {红} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

75.

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \mathrm {红} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = 0 $$ $$ = \mathrm {红} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \mathrm {紫 蓝} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \mathrm {紫 蓝} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \mathrm {紫 蓝} $$

$$ = \mathrm {L i} + \mathrm {N a} ^ {+} + \mathrm {H} ^ {+} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \mathrm {L i} + \mathrm {N a} ^ {+} $$

$$ \mathrm {I} = \mathrm {I} _ {\mathrm {A}} + \mathrm {I} _ {\mathrm {B}} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

55.

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

50.

$$ = \mathrm {红} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

45.

$$ = \mathrm {红} $$ $$ = \mathrm {红} $$

40.

$$ = \mathrm {红} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

35.

9 a.m 10 a.m 11 a.m 12 p.m 1 p.m 2 p.m 3 p.m 4 p.m $$ \mathrm {法} = \mathrm {法} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

9) Inside of Kesit Cafe

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \mathrm {紫 蓝} $$

10) Simitci Cafe

11) Library

$$ \mathrm {L i} + \mathrm {H} _ {2} \mathrm {O} = \mathrm {L i O} _ {2} + \mathrm {H} _ {2} \mathrm {S} $$

12) Hallway

$$ = \mathrm {紫 蓝} $$

13) Dining Hall

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

14) Canteen

15) Common Area

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ $$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$

16) Inside of Dean's Office

$$ = \frac {1}{2} $$ Figure 4: Results of Indoor Places.

Our results are also shown on a map too. In this format the locations which has higher voice level values are shown with red and orange and the least noisy areas are shown with light green and dark green (Figures 5a to 5i).

Click to enlarge

The buildings on the campus closer to the highway are the structures most severely exposed to noise during daytime time zone.

Figure 5a: Voice Levels at 9 a.m. Figure 5b: Voice Levels at 10 a.m.

Click to enlarge

Figure 5c: Voice Levels at 11 a.m. Figure 5d: Voice Levels at 12 p.m.

Figure 5e: Voice Levels at 1 p.m. Figure 5f: Voice Levels at 2 p.m.

Figure 5g: Voice Levels at 3 p.m. Figure 5h: Voice Levels at 4 p.m.

Click to enlarge

Within the context of the analysis conducted in Table 3, the results were compared with allowed values that were suggested from noise regulation and control. It is clearly seen that locations that are numbered as 1, 4, 6, 9, 13 and 16 are in the allowed range (Table 3). Furthermore, other locations that are not in the allowed ranges, thus these places are not optimal for sound level according to sound regulation and control values. The main reasons of this noise pollution are motorized vehicles that are running at high volume. To handle with this problem, vehicles’ noise should be regulated according to the threshold values.

Conclusion

The population of Gazi University Maltepe campus is increasing as an effect of expanded student and staff number of current departments. As a result of increased number of students and staff, the number of vehicles also increases and this affects noise level in a negative way. In this study, the noise levels were conducted with sound level meter in Gazi University Engineering Faculty Campus. According to the obtained results, there are many places in Gazi University Engineering Faculty Campus that have noise pollution and our results help us to understand reducing the noise levels in common areas. Campus management should try to reduce the noise level to provide better educational environment for all students and lecturers. Therefore, measures should be taken in such locations to reduce the noise levels so that classrooms will not be subjected to external noise.