Prefatory assessment of mapped noise corridors in two institutional campuses located in Benin city, Nigeria

Abstract

The University of Benin (UNIBEN), located in Benin city, Nigeria, operates two campuses; Ugbowo and Ekehuan campuses. This study aimed to evaluate noise levels at random points within the two campuses. The objective of this study was the generation of noise maps for both campuses  using ARCGIS 10.8. Noise concentrations associated with the respective twenty outdoor locations within each campus was obtained with the aid of a digital sound level meter. The sampling points were visited once weekly for four weeks in the month of February, 2024. The mean noise values were subjected to one-way analysis of variance test performed at 95% probability level. Spatial noise maps were developed for the visited campuses using inverse distance weighting (IDW) interpolation. For the sampling points in both campuses visited in the first sampling week, the mean noise readings varied from 65.3 dB(A) ± 0.14 to 87.8 dB(A) ± 0.07 and 63.7 dB(A) ± 0.14 to 83.9 dB(A) ± 0.14 respectively. There was a significant difference in the grouped mean noise values at p >0.05. The spatial noise map for Ugbowo campus created for sampling week 1 revealed that the maximal number of the sampling points colored light green fell within the range of 74.29dB(A) to 78.79dB(A). The noise maps indicated the noisy nature of the visited campus. Further field studies focusing on obtaining noise readings from more sampling points for a longer sampling period is recommended.