Noise pollution prediction and seasonal comparison in urban parks using a coupled GIS- artificial neural network model

Noise pollution is a challenging environmental issue in densely built urban areas and requires a holistic understanding of its sources and alleviation processes. Taking Isfahan City in Iran as a typical case, this study developed a combined GIS-artificial neural network (ANN) model to predict the spatio-temporal contribution of low-width parks to poise pollution mitigation. The 30-min equivalent sound level was measured at 100 stations in six urban parks (with a total area of 55.84 ha) under stable and controlled winter and summer conditions. The noise level predicting variables were hypothesized to be the area of vegetation cover; NDVI-based vegetation density and standard deviation (std); vegetation height; and road coverage measured within 100-, 200-, and 300-m radius buffer rings drown around each noise sampling station. These predictors were introduced to a multi-layer perceptron ANN model to identify and compare the most important noise alleviation variables among the selected predictors. The mean noise levels ranged from 67.23 to 70.57 dB. The number of vehicles showed an insignificant temporal difference, indicating that the noise source was relatively constant between the seasons. The ANN model performed satisfactorily in both seasons with SSE values of < 0.03. The Mann–Whitney U test showed a significant difference in the predicted noise levels between summer and winter. This study highlighted the efficiency of the combined GIS-ANN model in predicting distant-dependent urban processes, especially noise pollution whose levels and variability are essential in formulating urban land-use management.