Evaluation of Noise Levels and Ascertaining Noise Indices in an Urbanizing City of Kota, Rajasthan, India

Limited studies have been carried out for assessing the holistic scene of noise levels. Monitoring of ambient noise is occasionally conducted in Indian cities, whereas the noise has been fast emerging as a silent killer throughout the urbanized world. We have immense data for air and water pollution, but only limited international figures for the European region are available pertaining to the health impact of environmental noise through a preliminary study carried out by the WHO in 2011. The city of Kota is one of the highly industrialized cities of India, which is still marching ahead on the trajectory of urbanization and decisively breached the one million population figure in 2011 itself. With stupendous growth, it has simultaneously acquired the intrinsic maladies of cities largely witnessed in the developing geographies. One of the several afflictions is excessive noise which warrants a considerate study. Studies have been undertaken to assess the noise levels in the five chosen pockets of the Kota city bearing industrial, residential and commercial characters. Measurements of L₁₀, L₅₀, L₉₀ and L_eq have been taken and NC, TNI and L_np have also been ascertained. An innovative effort of evolving a Noise Quality Index has been endeavoured. The highest NC (noise climate) has been observed in the industrial area, whereas, the lowest in residential cum industrial area. On the other hand, the highest L_eq is observed in the industrial area itself, but the lowest is observed in the residential cum commercial area. The overall study suggests that some pockets are affected by the growing nuisance of noise pollution, and the city is gradually hurtling towards high noise ambience.