‘NoiseAbility’ – a new intelligent, IoT-based noise service was launched today in Milan at a meeting of city and open data experts from across Europe. The new predictive service enables noise levels and citizens’ responses to be modelled in specific locations within cities – providing city managers with a powerful toolkit to address the many challenges linked to noise pollution.
NoiseAbility was piloted in specific locations in three cities: Bilbao, Eindhoven and Edinburgh, bringing together data from real-time noise sensors, direct citizen engagement and IoT, AI and machine learning to develop the predictive tool. The project gathered around 4000 inputs directly from citizens across the pilot cities, while nearly 20 noise sensors provided both noise levels and frequencies during the course of the 6-month pilot, part of the EU H2020 Synchronicity IoT programme.
The project was led by two SMEs, strategic partner and engagement specialists, The Lunar Works / Tynos Consulting, and IoT Lead and data insights experts, Urban Tide.
Jane McLaughlin, Director of the Lunar Works /Tynos Consulting said:
‘The specific challenges faced by citizens and city managers were slightly different in each city locale, and so we asked citizens to tell us directly how they felt about sound – which types of sound were pleasing and which were not, how did sound levels affect their perception as well as time of day. Gathering around 4000 data points from citizens directly via an online tool and via workshops was a mammoth task that was ground-breaking as well as revealing.’
The pilot identified that people’s reactions to measured sound varied considerably from city to city, and therefore the need to model citizens’ perceptions to sound in each city is important, based on local input from citizens.
A key finding of the engagement process was that citizens in all three cities are information ‘hungry’ for when noise-generating events are going to happen. There was also a common desire for being involved at community level about ways to manage noise.
Arthur Noordhoek, City of Eindhoven said:
‘We know our citizens are concerned about noise and we want to ensure that sound in the city is not unduly affecting people’s wellbeing. This pilot project was an opportunity for us to understand more about how our citizens felt about the noise and to test whether a noise service could help us manage noise better in future.’
Councillor Lesley Macinnes, Transport & Environment Lead, City of Edinburgh said:
‘The City of Edinburgh has just agreed to a far-reaching transformation plan for the city centre. The City Centre Transformation plan puts safer, healthier places for citizens right at the heart of our priorities. Tackling noise pollution is part of making cities safer, and knowing more about sound and people’s perceptions of sound, is a vital component to managing noise pollution more effectively.’
Miguel Gonzalez Vara, Director of Environment, City of Bilbao said:
‘Bilbao’s city centre is a mix of traditional, reformed industrial, and contemporary, vibrant, multifunctional spaces, which services residents, businesses and tourists alike. Along with our success in transforming from an industrialised to a service-based city, we want to ensure that serious issues of noise pollution can be effectively addressed while maintaining the fabric of Bilbao’s contemporary and traditional cultures. The NoiseAbility pilot has helped us understand better the types of noise that are most urgent to be addressed. This is the kind of service we want to use in our city on a regular basis.’
The new noise service provides a dashboard for cities to predict what levels, types, durations and times of day specific events or activities will be most acceptable to most people (including residents, businesses and tourists).
Steven Revill, CEO of Urban Tide, the IoT company that developed the AI-based noise service said:
‘We are really pleased to be launching the NoiseAbility service today. We have been able to collect noise data from nearly 20 sensors in 3 cities and to match this with people’s reactions to the sound they are hearing. This is an invaluable data trove that has enabled us to train our AI to understand people’s reactions to noise. We are just at the start of what is possible with such a service, but already, we can offer cities valuable data insights about sound in the city.’
While the formal pilot project is over, the SMEs will continue to work together to build on the good work by extending the data insights the service is able to offer, and in providing a service to new cities interesting in addressing the challenge of noise pollution in their communities.
NoiseAbility Consortium:
- Urban Tide – IoT Lead Partner, owner of the USMART platform
- The Lunar Works / Tynos Consulting – strategic and engagement partner
- The City of Edinburgh – pilot city
- The City of Bilbao – pilot city
- City of Eindhoven – SynchroniCity core pilot city
The pilot took place between March and September 2019.
Pilot results can be found in the full report.
Pilot report
Learn more about the NoiseAbility pilot and citizen engagement in Bilbao, Edinburgh and Eindhoven.