Noise attenuation varies by interactions of land cover and season in an urban/peri-urban landscape

Anthropogenic noise is increasing worldwide because of growing human populations, transportation, and resource extraction. This excessive noise negatively impacts humans and wildlife. To mitigate noise pollution, the use of vegetation in urban planning is becoming increasingly common. However, noise attenuation can be influenced by poorly understood differences in land cover and seasonality that exist across complex urban and peri-urban environments. We compared the noise attenuation capacity of sites typifying dominant land covers in southern Ontario, Canada (forest, tallgrass prairie, and agriculture) across three seasons (summer, fall, and winter). We found that total noise attenuation was affected by a complex interaction of both site and season across low (250 Hz), mid (500 Hz), and high (1000 Hz) frequency sound. Seasonal changes in vegetation density varied between sites and seemed to play only a partial role in total noise attenuation. While forest, trees, and shrubs continue to be effective for managing noise pollution, our results suggest that other types of land cover can also be useful (e.g., tallgrass prairie). With growing interest in the potential noise attenuating capabilities of vegetation, we recommend further consideration of the seasonal variation in attenuation that can occur across the diverse land covers of urban and peri-urban environments.

Automated summary

Anthropogenic noise is on the rise globally due to factors like population growth, transportation, and resource extraction. The use of vegetation in urban planning to mitigate noise pollution is increasing. Our study in southern Ontario, Canada, found that total noise attenuation is affected by a complex interaction of site and season, with different land covers and seasonal changes in vegetation density playing varying roles in noise attenuation. Forest, trees, shrubs, and other types of land cover can all be effective in managing noise pollution. More consideration of the seasonal variation in attenuation across diverse land covers in urban and peri-urban environments is recommended.