High ambient noise levels in Vadodara City, India, affected by urbanization

The present research was conducted to study the urbanization of Vadodara city and to monitor the ambient noise level in the industrial, commercial, residential and silence zones of the city. A settlement map created by unsupervised classification for the land use and land cover study of Vadodara city clearly shows the increasing pattern of urbanization in its central part, which may be the result of urban sprawl due to migration of people from the rural to the urban areas. The fluctuation in ambient noise level was recorded using an A-weighted sound level meter in all the four zones of Vadodara city for 3 h at regular intervals of 15 min on 3 consecutive days at the same time. The results showed the highest equivalent noise level of 93.7 dBA in the commercial zone followed by 85.5 dBA in the industrial zone, 73.2 dBA in silence zone, and 70.2 dBA in the residential zone. The values of noise level were high in all the zones of the city increasing remarkably over the prescribed limit given in the Noise Pollution (Control and Regulation) Rules, 2000. Continuous exposure to such high level of noise may lead to detrimental effect on people.