Medicon Agriculture & Environmental Sciences Volume 2 Issue 2 February 2022 Research Article Evaluation of Environmental Noise in Urban areas: A Noise Pollution Assessment Approach Citation: Misha Roy., et al. “Evaluation of Environmental Noise in Urban areas: A Noise Pollution Assessment Approach”. Medicon Agriculture & Environmental Sciences 2.2 (2022): 21-40. Misha Roy 1,2 *, Farzana Shamim 1 , Rahul Majumder 1 , Chaitali Ghosh 1 and Saibal Chatterjee 1 1 Centre for Environmental Studies, Vidyasagar University, Midnapur, West Bengal, India 2 Directorate of Distance Education, Vidyasagar University, India *Corresponding Author: Misha Roy, Directorate of Distance Education, Centre for Environmental Studies, Vidyasagar University, Midnapur, West Bengal, India. Received: January 10, 2022; Published: January 31, 2022 Abstract Noise Pollution has become a serious health issue nowadays and emerging as a serious pollutant. This study is carried out in three semiurban towns to evaluate the impact of noise pollution in these areas. A total of 69 locations are selected in Asansol, Bankura, and Midnapore town including the Silent, Residential, Commercial, and Industrial zone. Since the noise level varies with atmospheric conditions, hence the study is divided into premonsoon, monsoon, and post-monsoon seasons. L1, L5, L10, L50, L90, L95, L99, Equivalent sound pressure level (Leq), Noise climate (NC), Noise pollution level (Lnp), and Noise traffic Index (TNI) were computed for evaluating the intensity of noise pollution. The result reveals that the equivalent sound pressure level (Leq) is much higher than the standards in all locations of the silent zones. Noise pollution level (Lnp) and Noise traffic Index (TNI) are also computed high in commercial and heavy traffic zones. The Noise climate (NC) value shows not much variation in noise intensity with pre-post and monsoon climates. This is a pioneer study on noise quality evaluation in these locations. This study will further help in preparing future management plans to combat noise pollution in these areas. Keywords: Noise pollution; Equivalent noise level (Leq); Traffic noise; L99;L90;Noise climate (NC); Noise traffic Index (TNI); Noise pollution level (Lnp) Abbreviations Leq : Equivalent noise level. NC : Noise climate. TNI : Noise traffic Index. Lnp : Noise pollution level. Introduction Noise – the unwanted sound- is an obtrusive form of environmental pollution. It is derived from the Latin word “nausea” implying ‘unwanted sound’ or ‘sound that is loud, unpleasant or unexpected’. According to health specialists, noise pollutions accounts for around 24% of the pollutant loads responsible for health risks [1]. Noise pollution impacts the activity of human or animal life, most of them are harmful to some extent. The sources of outdoor noise worldwide are mainly machines, transportation, and propagation system [2]. This high noise intensity causes stress, annoyance, sleeping disturbances, hormonal changes, increase in blood pressure, various cardiovascular diseases and coronary artery diseases, the endocrine effect from noise, cognitive disablement (in children), etc [3 - 5]. The effect of noise has been studied on humans, animals, and plants [6-8]. Changes in blood pressure, heart rate, changing the level of the stress hormone, and increase in cardiovascular risk are also seen as non-auditory health effects [9, 10].