Institute For The Future

Helping others see the pollution you hear

As part of our ongoing work examining the intersection of health and citizen-environmental monitoring, we are always on the look out for new products and services that promote this connection.

 

One story that we have used frequently as a signal is PEIR, the Personal Environmental Impact Report project run by UCLA, which allows people to use their mobile phones to explore and share their impact on the environment and how the environment impacts them. Another is Squirrel, from Calit2, a mobile air pollution monitor (read about it here).

 

But in addition to air pollution, noise pollution is a regular—and disruptive—part of daily life in a city, resulting from traffic to construction to every day chatter (made worse by the prevalence of people talking on their cell phones). Now we have two projects—NoiseTube and LHR NoiseMap—that use mobile phones to record and map instances of noise pollution.

 

 

As described by MobileActive.org:

NoiseTube uses crowd-sourcing to monitor noise pollution. Users with GPS-enabled phones can install a free application that measures the noise level wherever they are. Users tag the recordings with a description of the noise, its source, the time of day, and other criteria, and the data is then mapped onto GoogleEarth; in this way participants can use their phones as noise sensors to automatically share information about their city with other members of the community.

 

 

Based in Paris, NoiseTube's numbers are small—only 112 users spread over 25 cities. The LHR NoiseMap, which uses AudioBoo, an iPhone audio blogging application, to record the sounds of airplanes coming in and out of London’s Heathrow airport and the effect the noise has on the surrounding neighborhoods, has even fewer participants. It is essentially a one-man show. An interview with LHR NoiseMap developer, however, reveals the potential of both of these projects:

“Noise can be measured, you have a microphone on every phone. You can create an audio map, [with a] crowd-sourced, participatory approach using mobiles and mapping open street maps.”

 

While NoiseTube and LHR NoiseMap are in their infancy, they rely on readily available technology to measure and map noise pollution. If a critical mass of people become regular users in a given location, meaningful amounts of useful information will be generated. Imagine a neighborhood that has complained of noise from the local airport to no avail. Local citizens will now be able to easily and accurately document the problem and, armed with actionable data, hopefully be able to effect change.

 

I can't resist wrapping up this post with an Artifact from the Future that my colleague, Jason Tester, created for our Green Health Conference in 2008. Our report on the Greening of Health is now available here.