INVESTIGATING THE ENVIRONMENTAL NOISE IMPACT OF MASS RAPID TRANSIT ON NEARBY COMMUNITIES AT BATU 11 CHERAS, MALAYSIA

Abstract

Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) in Malaysia is designed to provide commuters with a comfortable journey that is highly functional and safe. Besides, it allows commuters to explore the city with ease and convenience. Due to the extension of the network throughout the years, the noise generated from MRT had increased and this environmental noise tends to annoy the adjacent community. This research aims to evaluate the environmental noise impact generated by MRT on the surrounding community at Batu 11 Cheras Station. A total of 4 monitoring points were selected for environmental noise impact assessment. After that, a sound level meter was set up at these monitoring points to measure the sound level and some parameters such as LAeq, Lmax, Lmin, L10, L50, and L90. For each monitoring point, the noise level was measured for 6 hours continuously from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm. Based on the results, the noise levels at critical monitoring points exceeded 2.71% of the permissible sound level in Batu 11 Cheras Station. While for the maximum sound level, all four-monitoring points A, B, C and D had exceeded 2.75%, 10.13%, 4.38%, and 7.13%, respectively. For community annoyance impact, little levels of environmental impact and subjectively perceived noticeable differences were found at all the monitoring points.