Evaluation of the LAeq levels during the COVID-19 lockdown period using a static wireless acoustic sensor network in the city of Girona

The implementation of the lockdown measures in Spain due to the COVID-19 has had a deep impact on the soundscape especially in urban environments. One of the most clear effects is the decrease of the urban noise levels observed by means of noise mapping techniques using Wireless Acoustic Sensor Networks deployed in medium-size and big cities. This study pretends to reflect the variation of the noise levels in Girona, a 100.000 inhabitants city in the North-East of Catalonia (Spain). We have analyzed the LAeq levels in eight different locations of the city from January to June 2020, including all the lockdown period, comparing with all the available noise monitoring data from the previous years (2019, 2018 and 2017 if available). The results show a considerable decrease of the noise levels in the street during all the hard lockdown. This analysis is part of the project "Sons al Balcó", which aims to draw the soundscape of Catalonia during the lockdown. Future work will be focused on finding dependencies between the equivalent levels measured in the sensors and the questionnaires and videos received from all the contributors in Girona.