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FORCIT Consulting – Enabling Sustainable Societies
CASE EXAMPLE: REDUCING RISKS FROM EXCESSIVE NOICE
Acoustics is everything related to sound, but all unwanted sound is noise. Every day, we are surrounded by background noise ‒ most of it such that we no longer think about it. Long-term exposure to excessive noise can cause serious health problems, affecting people’s everyday life and well-being. To be able to control the noise levels in projects related to city planning (construction of houses, tunnels, roads. etc.) is therefore important in order to reduce excessive and harmful noise levels. Excessive noise from different construction activities is today subject to regulations regarding noise levels. But the human ear is complicated. For example, a sudden shift in noise level is perceived as much worse than constant higher levels.
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Noise and acoustics consultants at Forcit raise consciousness about noise as a phenomenon and how excessive and harmful noise can be reduced.
This is why noise investigations are today an integrated part of almost all bigger construction projects and noise levels are also regulated in legislation. FORCIT Consulting is involved in many big infrastructure projects, helping customers to keep track of their noise levels and reduce them as much as possible. Some of these projects are carried out close to very sensitive environments, where excessive noise and vibration could potentially lead to serious disturbances – such as hospitals or laboratories – but there are also often projects where extraordinary acoustics is a prerequisite for the object, good example is a church.
DID YOU KNOW?
A decibel is the unit used to measure the intensity of a sound, whereas Hertz explains the frequency. The human ear can hear from 20 to 20000 Hertz. The highest sound that exists is 194 decibels. A quiet place is under 30 decibels – and is a legal requirement for bedrooms in many countries.
Negative health effects from excessive noise range from concentration difficulties and a general feeling of inconvenience to hearing loss, insomnia, and long-term negative health effects. Psychoacoustics is a branch of psychology concerned with the perception of sound and its physiological effects.
