Community noise levels in Patras, Greece.

In the city of Patras (Greece), noise measurements were made for the purposes of determining the present noise-pollution levels and the reaction of the people to them. For the latter purpose, a social survey was conducted with the use of a relevant questionnaire which was applied to 500 citizens. Its results show that noise pollution is ranked second in order after air pollution, and that traffic was the principal noise pollutant. The mean noise levels, in 25 monitoring stations throughout the city, were found to be high and definitely unacceptable. For three representative locations, corresponding to high, medium, and low traffic volume, the various statistical noise descriptors, such as Leq, LNP Ldn and others, were used, together with the other measurements, to estimate the noise environment of the entire city. The high degree of annoyance of the people is justified by the high values of Leq, LNP, Ldn, and TNI that were found.