Noise Disturbances and Calls for Police Service in València (Spain): A Logistic Model with Spatial and Temporal Effects

• Main Authors: Lia Seguí, Adina Iftimi, Álvaro Briz-Redón, Lucía Martínez-Garay, Francisco Montes
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-08-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: noise disturbances; resident complaints; logistic regression; spatio-temporal effects; socio-demographic and environmental effects; GIS
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/16/2815

The purpose of this paper is to explore the presence of spatial and temporal effects on the calls for noise disturbance service reported to the Local Police of València (Spain) in the time period from 2014 to 2015, and investigate how some socio-demographic and environmental variables affect the noise phenomenon. The analysis is performed at the level of València’s boroughs. It has been carried out using a logistic model after dichotomization of the noise incidence variable. The spatial effects consider first- and second-order neighbors. The temporal effects are included in the model by means of one- and two-week temporal lags. Our model confirms the presence of strong spatio-temporal effects. We also find significant associations between noise incidence and specific age groups, socio-economic status, land uses, and recreational activities, among other variables. The results suggest that there is a problem of "social" noise in València that is not exclusively a consequence of coexistence between local residents. External factors such as the increasing number of people on the streets during weekend nights or during summer months severely increase the chances of expecting a noise incident.