Real-Time, Automated Noise Impact Assessment Monitoring of an Industrial Facility

An industrial facility near a town operates day and night, 365 days per year. Four permanent sound level measurement stations are used to monitor the noise from the industrial activities. For regulatory purposes, post-processing of the data is done aurally to filter out the noise events not associated with the industry, thus allowing for the calculation of the noise levels only associated with the industrial activities. For real-time monitoring of the noise levels, a web-monitoring system has been installed. A specific criterion has been developed for the automatic calculation of the industrial noise contribution, with an on-line interface. The criterion, called Lev (Evaluated Sound Level) is based on advanced signal processing tools. This paper demonstrates the accuracy of the Lev criterion relative to aural post-processing, and helps to monitor the industry activities on site in real-time.