NYU taps Ohio State expertise for research to combat NYC noise pollution

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Taking aim at New Yorkers’ biggest civic complaint—noise—a team of scientists from NYU, working with collaborators at The Ohio State University, have launched a first-of-its-kind comprehensive research initiative to understand and address noise pollution in New York and beyond.   

The project—which involves large-scale noise monitoring—leverages the latest in machine learning technology, big data analysis and citizen science reporting to more effectively monitor, analyze and mitigate urban noise pollution. Known as Sounds of New York City (SONYC), this multi-year project has received a $4.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation and has the support of city health and environmental agencies.  

There are more complaints to New York City’s 311 hotline about noise than any other issue. Nine out of 10 adults in New York are exposed to noise levels beyond what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers to be harmful. Studies have shown that noise pollution produces learning and cognitive impairment in children, resulting in decreased memory and reading skills as well as lower test scores.  

“Noise pollution is one of the topmost quality of life issues for urban residents in the U.S. with proven effects on health, education, the economy, and the environment,” said Juan Pablo Bello, director of the Music and Audio Research Lab (MARL) at the NYU Steinhardt School and lead investigator on the SONYC initiative. “Yet, most cities lack the resources for continuously monitoring noise, the technology for understanding how individual sources contribute to noise pollution, the tools to broaden citizen participation in noise reporting, and the means to empower city agencies to take effective, information-driven action.  SONYC will help address these shortcomings.”

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Prof. Arora
Leveraging the expertise of Ohio State Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Anish Arora, the SONYC project will use a distributed network of both sensors and individuals for large-scale noise monitoring. During the project’s initial phase, expected to take one year, approximately 100 sensors will be installed on NYU buildings at locations around Manhattan and Brooklyn to record street sounds as a way of “teaching” the sensors to recognize and differentiate between different types of noise (e.g., jackhammers, sirens, music, yelling, barking, etc.).

“SONYC sensors will need a new type of battery-powered computing node to support and even relearn diverse node recognition algorithms in situ while consuming very low power,” said Arora, who has built numerous sensor networks. “By combining accurate and robust machine listening with large-scale, albeit subjective human complaint data, we expect to provide reliable information to support decision making.”  

To ensure privacy, sound will be collected in short snippets with random gaps in between, and signs will be posted near sensors to alert passersby that sound recording is taking place. Audio will only be recorded from each sensor for a total of 4 months over the course of a year to account for daily, monthly and seasonal variations. Access to all recordings will be restricted and limited to researchers.  

During phase two, the sensors will no longer record audio. Instead, they will use machine listening technology to recognize individual sound sources and produce statistical reports on sound levels and types. That data will be compared with 311 complaints and other citizen reports of noise to form an “acoustic model” of the city.

“Phase two of the project will usher in a distinct set of challenges as we attempt to reliably interpret, verify, and visualize the data we receive from both machines and people,” said Claudio Silva, a professor of computer science and engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and SONYC team member. “Because SONYC will continuously monitor and enable noise pollution to be analyzed, it can guide efforts to quantify the noise and understand its effects, thus providing actionable knowledge that can help city officials and residents address the problem.”    

The SONYC project will work closely with city agencies and industry in both research and implementation. Identifying noise events and designing and testing data-driven interventions will be done in cooperation with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will work with the team on using SONYC to study the public health effects of noise. The Downtown Alliance will provide access to infrastructure and logistical support needed to deploy the SONYC sensor network in Lower Manhattan, while ARUP will work closely with the project’s team in testing and developing its sensing technologies.

SONYC is a collaboration between NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP);  NYU Tandon School of Engineering; NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development; and The Ohio State University.