To celebrate International Noise Awareness Day 2021 which took place on 28th April, Limerick City and County Council invited its residents to map and assess quiet areas in the city by using the free citizen science app Hush City. Limerick City is planning to use citizen-generated data related to the crowdsourced quiet areas to be given consideration in the Limerick Noise Action Plan 2023-2028

We would like to acknowledge the participation of the Limerick residents in this call and present three of the quiet places mapped in Limerick with the Hush City App.

Castletroy Park

A quiet area was mapped in Castletroy Park. The Hush City app’s user reported that they were prompted to map this quiet place by “pleasure”. They have found this place fairly quiet and indicated “swishing of the trees in the wind” as one of the sounds that contributed in a positive way to the sense of quietness.
Other sounds perceived in the location were human and natural sounds and human movements. Background traffic noise coming from a street lining the park was reported as disturbing the sense of quietness. The user reported that in this quiet area people were engaged in activities like walking, relaxing, waiting, talking.

This quiet area is Area #4524 in the Hush City Map. You can listen to the sound recorded in this area and read the comments shared by the user by linking to the Hush City Map here.

George’s Quay

A second quiet area was spotted and mapped in the proximity of the Abbey River along George’s Quay in Limerick City.
The Hush City app’s user reported that they were prompted to map the location by sense of “comfort”. This place was perceived as “slightly quiet” and “lively”, and the “water flow of Abbey River” was indicated as one of the sounds that contributed in a positive way to the user’s sense of quietness.
Sounds coming from a construction site was reported as disturbing the sense of quietness of the place. The user also reported that in this location people were walking, relaxing, and talking.

This quiet area is Area #4532 in the Hush City Map. You can listen to the sound recorded in this area and read the comments shared by the user by linking to the Hush City Map here.

Bishop’s Quay

A third quiet area was crowdsourced along the beautiful River Shannon at Bishop’s Quay in the City.
The Hush City app’s user reported that they were prompted to map the location by a sense of “distraction”. This place was perceived as “fairly quiet” and “relaxing”, with sounds of human voices contributing in a positive way to the sense of quietness. Sounds from the water flowing from the Shannon River were indicated as distinctive of the identity of the place.

This quiet area is Area #4528 in the Hush City Map: you can listen to the sound recorded in this area and read the comments shared by the user by linking to the Hush City Map here.

 

Would you like to participate and help Limerick City identify its quiet areas and work towards a plan to protect them?

Download the free Hush City Map and see what you can do with it here on this helpful video!

Text courtesy of Antonella Radicchi and Simon Jennings.

* All the datasets associated to the quiet areas crowdsourced with the free Hush City App are available online in the open access Hush City Map.
This blog post is also published on the Limerick Council’s website here.