Acoustic Report #2.

Saturday, 28th March the 2020

COVID-19 and the soundscape in Lima city

Very hard days are waiting us due to COVID-19 in terms of physical health (many people are dying), emotional state and
economy. Peru (like other countries) has declared the state of alarm that involves confinement and a decrease in the industrial
and leisure activity. This activity reduction was a thing that nobody thought it would be possible to achieve in our previous day to
day. This singularity is very important because it lets us to asses a lower limit of a possible noise reduction in the future.
ARQUICUST have been monitoring the noise level in Magdalena close to Parque González Prada, on a top roof at 300 m
from Town Hall, because this urban zone is highly impacted by airplane overflight: The noise levels are annoying during night.
Since Monday 16th, Peru is in a
State of emergency and Social
Isolation, several newspapers are
taking account the air pollution
reduction, because of car traffic
suppression. According to MINAM:
The PM2.5 level in 2018 was 75
g/m3, and on Wednesday 18th just
15 g/m3,
NASA is publishing pictures
showing the greenhouse effect
gases reduction and how is
recovering the ozone hole.

But what about the reduction of urban noise level? Unfortunately in Lima there is not a continuous noise monitoring system.
ARQUICUST is able to know the sound level, we are using a TA120 noise sensor, that is a Noise platform with satellite
communication; so, from anywhere, it is possible to access the data virtually by CESVACloud®, and in this confinement time we
can analyze the Soundscape in Magdalena del Mar due to aircraft pass-by reduction without going to the device location.
The following graphic compares the noise level between two Tuesdays; the 3rd and 24th: Overall noise reduction by 8 dBA.

It is interesting to analyze the Soundscape before/after the inception of confinement order; the following tables show the
noise levels during day hours (07.00 h to 21.59 h) and night hours (22.00 h to 06.59 h).
It is remarkable how the urban
noise levels was diminishing day by
day, and drop from 52 dBA to 45.5
dBA during the day, and from 48.8 to
37.2 dBA on nights.
On 21st and 22nd the noise is higher
because of the Humanitarian flights.

The graphic shows the urban noise levels in

columns, to illustrate the Soundscape in
Magdalena del Mar, Lima.
The 2020 is declared the International Year of
Sound by UNESCO, because of that, it is so
important to divulgate -among Authorities- this
information about the healthy Soundscape noise
levels; they have to develop governmental
actions in order to maintain the environmental
noise as low as is possible.

We have to be very serious against COVID-19

menace, but once we recover, we have to keep
great learnings from this situation!

Ms Acoustics: Montano, Walter. Arch, Gushiken, Elena