A
Anonymous
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Noise Pollution Clearinghouse
http://nonoise.org/
Biology News Net
http://www.biologynews.net/
May 15, 2007
(Excerpt)
Leslie Blomberg of the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse will propose 10 ways to
reduce noise in natural parks. For example, Blomberg says, the simple step
of using quieter pavement materials could cut road noise in half in the main
entrance of the Florida Everglades. Blomberg (npc@nonoise.org) notes that
noise in national parks follows the same consistent pattern associated with
other modern noise: the invention of new noise sources, the growth in use of
those sources, and the spread of those sources into previously quiet areas.
////////////////
Natural Resource Year in Review
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/yearinreview/
Year 1998
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/yearinreview/yir98/
Protecting the natural soundscape in parks
by William B. Schmidt, bill_schmidt@nps.gov
Special Assistant to the Associate Director
Natural Resource Stewardship and Science
National Park Service
Washington, D.C.
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/yearinreview ... 04pg6.html
The National Park Service is moving to define and resolve a set of problems
involved in protecting and restoring an overlooked and often abused
resource: the soundscape. One aspect of the noise pollution issue in parks,
air tour overflights, has been a focus of the National Park Service since
1975. However, the deterioration of the soundscape due to all sources of
human-caused noise is just starting to be addressed. One cluster of
parks—Biscayne, Everglades, and Dry Tortugas National Parks, and Big Cypress
National Preserve in south Florida—may point the way to the future of noise
management in the national park system through the lessons learned and the
techniques developed in those parks.
For the past few years, these parks have been the subject of noise
monitoring and analysis. Initially, the catalyst was a supplemental
environmental impact analysis led by the Air Force and the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) and related to the proposal to convert the former
Homestead Air Force Base, devastated by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, into a
major single-runway, civilian airport. The issue has evolved into one of
soundscape protection as the parks came to recognize that all human-caused
noise was the problem, not just noise from aircraft.
Monitoring began in 1997 when the National Park Service sent a contractor
into the field to collect the first scientific information on the nature and
magnitude of natural sounds and some of the sources of human-caused noise
intrusions in Everglades and Biscayne. Shortly thereafter the Federal
Aviation Administration collected data in the area using a different method.
Unfortunately, both methods have faults. The FAA approach, in particular,
was keyed principally to the collection of data on aircraft noise, not on
the levels of quiet the National Park Service seeks to protect. Another
complication was trying to extrapolate noise data from the collection points
to broader areas for the purpose of defining a park’s soundscape.
In November the NPS contractor went back into the field. This time, in
addition to conducting hour-long monitoring at six sites missed by the
Federal Aviation Administration, the contractor set up unattended monitoring
stations to collect data on diurnal variations in noise level. These data,
coupled with the previous data, have begun to provide some answers.
A combination of unattended monitoring and targeted monitoring to establish
daily and seasonal noise variations, and to identify the nature and levels
of intrusive noise, is proving to be a better sampling strategy. The
National Park Service is drafting a manual describing this method and, in
1999, plans to define a credible process for describing a park’s soundscape
based on disparate data. Additionally, a statistic called “L90,” the sound
level exceeded 90% of the time, is a useful estimate of the natural
soundscape, particularly under relatively noisy conditions. A policy is
being drafted that spells out obligations of the National Park Service to
inventory, monitor, and protect the soundscape. Many concepts related to
soundscape preservation are already discussed in the NPS education package
“The Nature of Sound,” and a forthcoming NPS director’s order will provide
further direction on this issue. Finally, Biscayne, Everglades, and Big
Cypress are in various stages of developing noise management plans that
detail what can and must be done to protect their soundscape resources.
http://nonoise.org/
Biology News Net
http://www.biologynews.net/
May 15, 2007
(Excerpt)
Leslie Blomberg of the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse will propose 10 ways to
reduce noise in natural parks. For example, Blomberg says, the simple step
of using quieter pavement materials could cut road noise in half in the main
entrance of the Florida Everglades. Blomberg (npc@nonoise.org) notes that
noise in national parks follows the same consistent pattern associated with
other modern noise: the invention of new noise sources, the growth in use of
those sources, and the spread of those sources into previously quiet areas.
////////////////
Natural Resource Year in Review
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/yearinreview/
Year 1998
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/yearinreview/yir98/
Protecting the natural soundscape in parks
by William B. Schmidt, bill_schmidt@nps.gov
Special Assistant to the Associate Director
Natural Resource Stewardship and Science
National Park Service
Washington, D.C.
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/yearinreview ... 04pg6.html
The National Park Service is moving to define and resolve a set of problems
involved in protecting and restoring an overlooked and often abused
resource: the soundscape. One aspect of the noise pollution issue in parks,
air tour overflights, has been a focus of the National Park Service since
1975. However, the deterioration of the soundscape due to all sources of
human-caused noise is just starting to be addressed. One cluster of
parks—Biscayne, Everglades, and Dry Tortugas National Parks, and Big Cypress
National Preserve in south Florida—may point the way to the future of noise
management in the national park system through the lessons learned and the
techniques developed in those parks.
For the past few years, these parks have been the subject of noise
monitoring and analysis. Initially, the catalyst was a supplemental
environmental impact analysis led by the Air Force and the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) and related to the proposal to convert the former
Homestead Air Force Base, devastated by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, into a
major single-runway, civilian airport. The issue has evolved into one of
soundscape protection as the parks came to recognize that all human-caused
noise was the problem, not just noise from aircraft.
Monitoring began in 1997 when the National Park Service sent a contractor
into the field to collect the first scientific information on the nature and
magnitude of natural sounds and some of the sources of human-caused noise
intrusions in Everglades and Biscayne. Shortly thereafter the Federal
Aviation Administration collected data in the area using a different method.
Unfortunately, both methods have faults. The FAA approach, in particular,
was keyed principally to the collection of data on aircraft noise, not on
the levels of quiet the National Park Service seeks to protect. Another
complication was trying to extrapolate noise data from the collection points
to broader areas for the purpose of defining a park’s soundscape.
In November the NPS contractor went back into the field. This time, in
addition to conducting hour-long monitoring at six sites missed by the
Federal Aviation Administration, the contractor set up unattended monitoring
stations to collect data on diurnal variations in noise level. These data,
coupled with the previous data, have begun to provide some answers.
A combination of unattended monitoring and targeted monitoring to establish
daily and seasonal noise variations, and to identify the nature and levels
of intrusive noise, is proving to be a better sampling strategy. The
National Park Service is drafting a manual describing this method and, in
1999, plans to define a credible process for describing a park’s soundscape
based on disparate data. Additionally, a statistic called “L90,” the sound
level exceeded 90% of the time, is a useful estimate of the natural
soundscape, particularly under relatively noisy conditions. A policy is
being drafted that spells out obligations of the National Park Service to
inventory, monitor, and protect the soundscape. Many concepts related to
soundscape preservation are already discussed in the NPS education package
“The Nature of Sound,” and a forthcoming NPS director’s order will provide
further direction on this issue. Finally, Biscayne, Everglades, and Big
Cypress are in various stages of developing noise management plans that
detail what can and must be done to protect their soundscape resources.