ASSESSMENT OF NOISE POLLUTION IN HIGH DENSITY AREA OF ILORIN METROPOLIS
Abstract
Noise is an environmental pollutant that has continue to increase with an increase in population, Urbanization, and the general desire of man to acquire advanced technologies in transportation, construction, recreation and entertainment among others. In an attempt to provide solutions that will ameliorate pollution problem in urban centres of developing nations especially, the present study investigated the sources of noise pollution in very busy areas. Four very busy areas of Ilorin metropolis, Nigeria were randomly selected and used as case studies of a typical noise polluted city of a developing nation. Noise assessment quantities such as LAeq, L10, L90 TNI, LNP LD LN and LDN were used to assess and establish the background noise, peak noise and dominant noise sources at these locations. Results of this study shows that the major source of noise pollution in Ilorin metropolis can be attributed to traffic, where the TNI ranged between 88 - 120 dB (A), and LNP from 86 – 107 dB (A). Other intrusive sources of noise pollution at the studied locations could be attributed to the noise from business transactions, roadside media operators, individual electricity, hawkers advertising their wares and indiscriminate use of public address systems (PBS) for business promo and religious activities. Results show that the areas under study were noise polluted as they exceeded the standard provided by the world health organization (WHO).
