On April 29, Oriol Marquet participated in the debate “Initiatives to analyze the interaction between noise and air quality” at the VI Acoustics Congress of Catalonia (ACUSTICAT). The congress, held in Barcelona, focuses on the impact of noise pollution on health, conflicts associated with leisure and major events, and the planning of cities oriented towards acoustic well-being, also addressing issues such as urban noise management, traffic, citizen awareness, sound heritage and the use of new measurement and monitoring tools.
During the session, dedicated to exploring the relationship between noise and air quality as key factors for health, Oriol Marquet presented the European project ATMOPOLIS , led by Tampere University (TAU), with the GEMOTT research group (UAB) as a partner.
ATMOPOLIS aims to reduce air and noise pollution, as well as greenhouse gas emissions, through a people-centered approach aimed at improving health and the environment.
In his speech, Oriol highlighted the importance of the social and perceptual dimension, highlighting that the differences between measured data and the daily experiences of the population provide key knowledge. He also presented the Photovoice methodology, which GEMOTT will lead within ATMOPOLIS, to analyze how citizens perceive noise and atmospheric pollution in their day-to-day lives.
Other researchers also participated, such as Itziar Aspuru (Tecnalia Research & Innovation, who presented initiatives linked to the assessment of environmental acoustic quality, and Marc Freixes Guerreiro (La Salle Campus Barcelona, Ramon Llull University), who shared projects focused on audio processing and soundscape analysis using citizen science tools (Conscious Walks). The session was moderated by Núria Blanes Guàrdia, researcher at the SGR Applied Geography of the Department of Geography of the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
