Does the noise grow with the city?

The Thai  Department of City Planning and Urban Development has announced a plan to review and revise the city plan of Bangkok to be in line with the changing conditions and environment of urban development. It was present in the last year of 2023 when new metro and sky train lines were started to be used, giving citizens not only in central Bangkok to access public transport and travel across the city. The new Bangkok city mentioned an opportunity to change the restrictions of land use for some areas. Not only expanding the density of residential zones but also allowing some new areas to be developed e.g. for commercial, while still maintaining the conservation zone for agricultural zones as well as Thai art and cultural zones. While the city seems to be growing, what else may arise along with it behind the scenes?

                News and articles are reporting cases where citizens are disturbed or annoyed by noise (Noise pollution destroying condo life). Statistics also show a trend of increasing numbers of noise complaints and becoming the first-place compliant source in 2023 (Report of complaints of the 3^rd quarter, year 2023, Office of the Prime Minister). Noise pollution can be caused by many events and sources, for example, road traffic noise may be one of the major causes in a dense city like Bangkok with a population of more than 5 million people. Imagine the road keeps developing and the population grows denser, more people may be affected by noise pollution without a city noise study to plan a noise control strategy.

                City noise mapping has become a well-known tool used to study the noise exposure of the residents across the city and help governments plan new strategies for noise control, land use planning, or develop new building and housing laws. It is presented that there are noise monitoring stations located in various areas of Bangkok, some station shows that the level does exceed the recommended noise level (Online noise monitoring system from the Pollution Control Department). The monthly noise level report is also available on the PCD website (Noise Monitoring Report from the Pollution Control Department).