Analysis of leisure noise levels and assessment

of policies impact in San Salvario district, Torino

(Italy), by low-cost IoT noise monitoring network

Enrico Gallo, Elena Ciarlo, Manuela Santa, Emanuela Sposato

City of Torino, Italy.
Jacopo Fogola, Daniele Grasso, Stefano Masera
ARPA Piemonte, Italy.
Bruno Vincent, Yann Halbwachs
Acoucité, France.

Summary
Nightlife activities in open-air create increasing challenges for vibrant cities, in terms of noise
pollution and annoyance. City of Torino decided to face strategically this problem by an integrated
approach and put in place a low-cost IoT noise monitoring network using several Android
smartphones in San Salvario District, where a large number of restaurants, bars, pubs, and clubs
attracts each weekend thousands of people spending all evening and night on terraces and streets,
enjoying the amenity of this residential historical district. An app for signal processing and data
transmission was developed by the Regional Environmental Agency (ARPA Piemonte) and, after
a comprehensive set of lab tests for uncertainty evaluations and the definition of a calibration
procedure, an on-site deployment started in summer 2016. Hourly data were analyzed after been
collected for months in real time by the IoT Open Data platform, leading to a first exposure map
for leisure noise and a yearly detailed spectrum of hourly noise levels. This data-driven approach
has been chosen to impact on political agenda, on a stronger positive involvement of citizens in
focus groups, on local entrepreneurs’ engagement, and on patrons’ awareness, to start a better
adaptation of open-air events to city living. The noise monitoring network allowed measuring the
effects of new regulations in summer 2017 and will support the evaluation of the overall effect of
new actions for noise reduction planned for 2018, in the framework of the Monica Horizon 2020
Project (http://www.monica-project.eu/).
PACS no. 43.50.Rq, 43.50.Sr, 43.58.Fm

1. Introduction1 commercial initiatives, renewing the need for both

citizens and the public administration to find a
In the last two decades changes in individuals’ good balance between amusement, security, and
behaviors, modifications of cities rhythms and quality of public spaces.
investments of Municipalities to revitalize Municipalities are called to face this dynamic
historical city centers led to increasing open-air phenomenon and its negative externalities, firstly
nightlife activities [1][2][3]. leisure noise, where sources are mostly people
This is true especially in Italy (like others with their behaviors in an urban open space
Mediterranean and university cities), where a large [4][5][6][7].
number of young people usually meet in In this paper, the approach of the City of Torino to
residential historic districts, attracted by a high this complex challenge in the San Salvario district
density of restaurants, bars, pubs, and clubs, and is described, from the deployment of an ad hoc
spent all night for several days each week chatting sound monitoring network, the collection, and
and drinking. Often the center of nightlife changes analysis of data, the evaluation of indicators for
in a few years, following new trends and new communication activities to the implementation
and monitoring of reduction actions.

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All rights reserved
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2. San Salvario District area decided to strengthen its knowledge of noise levels
in San Salvario district and started the design and
The area of interest is part of the historic district of implementation of an ad hoc noise monitoring
San Salvario, located near the central railway network.
station and bounded by Vittorio Emanuele II
(North), Nizza (West), Madama Cristina (East) and 3. Deployment of a low-cost IoT noise
Marconi (South) boulevards. monitoring network
This residential area is characterized by the grid
plan typical of the old neighborhoods of Torino; Considering the high variability of leisure noise of
with about 470 four/five floors buildings with an “Movida”, and the difficulty to model its local
internal court; about 7300 people live in the area effects in a deterministic way, due to the joint
with a surface of 0,26 km2 . presence of people and bars with music and plants,
The district hosts a daily big open market and a low-cost sound level meter monitoring network
offers various commercial activities. Home to an was preferred, to potentially achieve a good spatial
increasing immigrants' community, the district is noise distribution based on a high number of
an example of cultural integration. sensors despite a limited detrimental of level
precision, like in other European cities [9][10].
2.1 Nightlife “Movida” and noise issues Smartphones where investigated as IoT sensors,
Starting from the 90s, the nightlife grew in this because different studies demonstrate that, under
city district thanks to a lot of pubs, low-cost bars, specific conditions, their use, if equipped with
restaurants, liquor stores and wine cellars, adequate microphones and specific mobile
boutiques and multi-ethnic shops that have been applications, is suitable for environmental noise
opened. These activities stay open until late and measurements [11].
have completely reshaped the map of city
entertainment, known as “Movida” [from Spanish: 3.1 Network development and installation
movement, happening]. The Regional Environmental Agency of Piedmont
The nightlife hot spots in San Salvario are in Largo (ARPA Piemonte), in order to assess the accuracy
Saluzzo and Via Baretti, where crowds gradually of environmental noise measurements using entry-
increase, from the areas in front of bars until level smartphones, carried out two different types
occupying all public spaces, thus causing huge of tests, comparing output data of smartphones
side effects: noise (chatting, shouting, quarrels), using different external microphones and a Class I
traffic blockages, irregular parking, obstruction of sound level meter, in an anechoic room, and
driveways, rubbish on the ground, etc. carrying out, for more than three months, a long-
The City Administration conducted some spot term environmental noise monitoring [12].
monitoring campaigns on noise levels in summer
time; those measurements revealed that the legal
zonal limits (50 dB(A) Leq night (22-06) and 55 dB(A)
Leq 1hour on the façades) where overpassed during
the weekend nights, with Leq night form 58 dB(A) up
to 72 dB(A) and Leq 1hour from 64 dB(A) up to 75
dB(A) between 11 PM and 3 AM.
These campaigns pointed a high variability of
noise levels in the area when a lot of people meet
in narrow streets; they also showed how difficult
could be controlling noise levels in open urban
spaces.
At the same time, citizens asked for more
information and actions to face the noise problems
caused by “Movida” and they conducted by
themselves extra surveys on noise levels and noise
effects [8].
To promote an integrated approach to the Figure 1. OpeNoise app: standard interface and
management of “Movida”, the Municipality advanced third-octave analysis

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Based on this experience, ARPA Piemonte Figure 3. San Salvario area and monitoring network.
developed “OpeNoise”, a dedicated app (Figure 1)
for real-time noise level monitoring. OpeNoise
allows Real-time A-weighted sound pressure level
measurement, minimum and maximum level, third
octave and FFT analysis, data saving in a text file,
sampling time setting and calibration [13].
Tests demonstrated that these solutions could be
adequate for a long-term environmental
characterization of “Movida”, with a standard
deviation of less than 2 dB(A) between 40 e 80
dB(A) on average levels for Lnight if compared with
class 1 sound level meters. A monthly calibration
was planned to verify the quality of measurements
(Figure 2); tuning is applied in case of differences
higher than 1 dB(A).
Where ready, this new prototypal low - cost noise
monitoring system based on smartphone devices,
Lavalier external microphones and OpeNoise app
(Figure 2) was deployed in San Salvario area,
where six measurement points were installed in
summer 2016 [14].
Despite general satisfying results, the noise
monitoring network suffers from vandalism (one
point was decommissioned) and high temperature
in summer (damages to batteries of smartphones).

3.2 Analysis and statistical characteristics of

leisure noise of “Movida”
Data availability allowed a first robust assessment
of noise impact of Movida on the residential area
on a yearly basis [15].
First analysis led by ARPA focused on long-term
Lnight average levels and on comparisons between
Figure 2. Kit for external installation and calibration of
levels in different days of the week (Table 1).
Lavalier microphone with a Class 1 source.
Table I. Noise levels of “Movida”
The location of sensors was optimized to cover all
significant feature of “Movida” area (Figure 3): Lnight Lnight FRI+SAT
Lnight
Sensor - Ldaytime - Lnight MON
one in a very crowded square (S_03, not active in
dB(A)
daytime), three in narrow streets with pubs and dB(A) dB(A)
bars (S_01, S_04, S_05), one in a boulevard for
traffic noise measurement (S_06) and the last one S_01 62.4 -0.1 8.9
in a quieter area with no crowd and low traffic S_02 57.0 -2.6 4.7
(S_02), for global reference. The choice of points
of installation was driven also by the power S_03 69.4 Ldaytime NA 9.8
supply, so light poles, public offices and bike
S_04 60.9 -1.1 5.2
sharing station where preferred.
Data collected by OpeNoise app with a sampling S_05 60.2 -0.2 5.5
time of 1 seconds are continuously sent via Wi-fi
or 4G to the regional IoT Open Data Platform and Data collected confirmed that Lnight levels
published on institutional websites. exceeded the limits stated by local noise zoning;
that levels are very close to daytime ones. The

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noise levels have a typical distribution during the proactive involvement of citizens, awareness of
week, with more than 9 dB(A) of difference local stakeholders, and commitment of patrons, to
between Friday/Saturday nights and Monday ones. support more engaging actions in the following
two years.
By assigning levels to buildings, a first estimation
of the population exposed to leisure noise was To evaluate acoustic improvements, a monitoring
completed, showing that almost 50% of inhabitants protocol was defined by Acoucité (partner of
live in dwellings with more than 60 dB(A) Lnight on Monica project for acoustic issues), integrating
the façade. environmental data from sensors, noise index,
surveys, statistical analysis, and audio recordings
A more detailed analysis was performed on an
for soundscape characterization.
hourly basis, pointing out that weekly, a
significant increase of duration and intensity of In 2017, activities of Acoucité were focused on
noise is verifiable each day, with a maximum collecting information on the initial acoustic state
reached on the night between Saturday and Sunday of the pilot. For “Movida”, a set of audio
(more than 72 dB(A) between 2 AM and 3 AM). recordings was performed in May 2017, with a
twofold objective: providing other partners with
recordings to initialize the development of sound
4. Initiatives for management of leisure
source identification algorithms and developing a
noise in San Salvario
prototype of interactive qualitative maps of the
Data availability of noise impacted on the political sound environments of the sites (Figure 4), with
agenda, and several actions were implemented by and without the noise sources to be reduced (in our
the Municipality: case, nightlife).
1. EU projects were considered to support special
initiatives and experimental solutions;
2. ordinances entered in force in Summer 2017 to
reduce noise in the short term;
3. a working group on “Movida” was created to
outline an Action Plan with detailed reduction
policies in the medium and long term.

4.1 H2020 MONICA Project

San Salvario district with its “Movida” was

proposed as a pilot area for Horizon 2020
MONICA (Management of Networked IoT
Wearables – Very Large Scale Demonstration of
Cultural Societal Applications) project. This Figure 4. San Salvario area and interactive sound
project is a large-scale demonstration of new and recording on web interface.
existing IoT applications, focusing on cultural This activity relied on binaural recordings made
performances in open-air settings, which create with sampling equipment over a full day and 5
challenges in terms of crowd safety, security and points (in the public open space and on the façades
noise pollution [16]. This three years project was of dwellings) and noise measurements made by the
financed and started in January 2017. low-cost monitoring network.
One of the main challenges of the pilot for Data collected of Leq, 1sec also allowed the
“Movida” is to achieve noise reduction by computation of HARMONICA index to
engaging the goers, using a mix of IoT “Movida”.
technologies and reward systems (set up by the
district/sellers’ associations) that could foresee The HARMONICA index (developed in a previous
special offers, prizes, and other benefits, when European research program [17]) represents in a
users’ behaviours minimize annoyance for graphic way the sound contribution of background
residents. noise and events in a differentiated way, on a scale
from 0 to 10. The use of this index could help
Consequently, during the first year of activities,
City of Torino activated a focus group to promote

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communication initiative, in particular with people proving that both Ordinances led to a noise
not usual with decibel (Figure 5). reduction, with a cumulative benefit of more than
3 dB(A) (Table 2).

Table 2. Leisure noise improvements in summer 2017,

S_03 point

Ordinance
Ordinance
n. 42 8th 1st October-
Lnight n.60 8th-30th
June- 31th December
July
30th September

2016 69.8 70.4 68.9

2017 67.7 66.9 68.4

∆ -2.1 -3.5 -0.5

Figure 5. Noise in San Salvario, Thursday 16th and Friday
17th May 2017. The HARMONICA index well highlights
higher levels on Friday nights (left down) vs Thursday ones.
4.3 Action Plan for leisure noise reduction

The availability of acoustic data pointed out that

4.2 City Ordinances for noise reduction noise in San Salvario should be considered
between priorities and a multidisciplinary team
In Summer 2017, two City Ordinances entered in (Local Police, Environment, Culture, Economics,
force, with the aim to limit noise pollution of Youth, Mobility) started working on an Action
“Movida” in the central area, San Salvario district Plan.
included.
Four strategies were proposed: integrated
The first one, Ordinance n. 46, limits alcohol monitoring (crowd, noise, traffic, etc.), noise
takeaway selling, as many people reach the area of reduction on different sources, long-term urban
“Movida” and buy alcohol in bottles at a low planning, and improvement of cultural offer. A
price, spending all night wandering or sitting in the special focus was given to communication
streets, chatting and shouting. So, takeaway selling strategies, as awareness appears as a key point for
alcohol in bottles was forbidden after 8 PM and for the success of the Plan.
all night, establishing the same rules for bars,
shop, and store. This Ordinance stayed in force Each strategy considers more actions: some of
them are implementations of Monica framework or
from 8th June until 30th September.
come from the City Ordinances or, furthermore,
The second one, Ordinance n. 60, limits serving introduce best practices validated in Italy and
food and beverage in terraces or outside bars and abroad [17].
shop, as many people stay outside these venues
The effectiveness of Plan will be assessed using
enjoying mild weather, or smoking, or because of
overcrowding, disturbing inhabitants with an noise data and annoyance indexes, taking
advantage again of the low-cost monitoring
increasing din. Serving food and beverage was
network.
forbidden after 1:30 AM (from Monday to
Thursday), after 2 AM (Friday) or after 3 AM
(Saturday, Sunday and feast day). Furthermore, a
5. Conclusions
compulsory presence of stewards was introduced,
Nightlife activities in open-air create increasing
to limit bad behaviours of customers. This
challenges for cities, in terms of noise pollution
Ordinance stayed in force from 8th July until 30th
and annoyance.
July.
Data collected allowed the assessment of effects
induced to the new regulations on Lnights levels,

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