ABOUT
Noise and the City was founded in 2015 as both a home for the former Greater Boston Neighborhood Noise Survey and a place where the organization’s founder, Erica Walker, could document her dissertation research as a doctoral candidate at Harvard T.H. Chan’s School of Public Health.
Our mission is two-fold:
- To document and describe the community soundscape and examine its impact on human health—both physically and mentally.
- To provide free, accessible, and dynamic advocacy tools, data, and resources to aid communities in understanding and addressing their specific noise issues.
Our mission is accomplished via real-time noise monitoring using both acoustical grade equipment and our smartphone app, Noisescore; laboratory experiments, engineering solutions, and community engagement events.
Today, our research includes: NoiseScore, our smartphone application and live maps; Community Sound Portraits, an artistic exhibit of audio, video, and photographic stories of residents and their soundscape; and the Community Noise Lab, a research lab in the Department of Environmental Health at Boston University School of Public Health.