Methodology of the community noise environmental quality assessment: A case study of Indian iron ore mining complex

A. K. Gorai¹* and A. K. Pal²

¹Environmental Science and Engineering Group, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand – 835215, India.

²Department of Environmental Engineering, Indian School of Mines University, Dhanbad, Jharkhand-826004, India.

*Corresponding author. E- mail: amit_gorai@yahoo.co.uk.

Accepted 17 July, 2009

   Abstract

Community noise is a term used generally to refer to noise exposure outside the industrial work place. This paper highlights the procedure of determining the noise environmental quality in residential/ commercial/ sensitive areas situated near the industrial (iron ore mining) complex. The noise environmental qualities (NEQ) for each locality were determine from value function curves developed for each noise impact parameters identified. The study reveals that almost all the areas register noise stress situations as the observed resultant noise environmental quality [NEQ(R)] at all the locations exceeding the desirable noise environmental quality [NEQ(R)] of the corresponding locations. The poor noise environmental quality and its associated harmful consequences demand incorporation of effective noise control mechanism in order to reduce the noise stress significantly.

Key words: Noise, impact assessment, iron ore mining.