It's the first time in history that more people are living in cities around the world than in country and rural areas. Currently, over 54% of us reside in the hustle bustle of city life. It's predicted that by 2040, it will be over 70% of the global population. It's important for us to recognise the pressure that exists from living in a city, and as the population increases, so will the sensory experience of living in a confined area. Traffic noise, pollution and peak hour ar

NoiseNet CEO Stuart Clough was traveling on a train in Brisbane last week when he first heard the announcements in the carriage which advertise the Commonwealth Games, soon to be hosted on the Gold Coast. It had been a while since Stuart had caught a train, so he was shocked by the sheer volume of the announcements, which seemed to be up to 6 decibels louder than normal. On the NoiseNet Twitter, he wrote: "Cheap speakers on trains used to yell at commuters are not information

Recent research in Germany has analysed the level of hearing loss in people across many different cities. They found that those in the loudest cities have hearing that is comparable with being 10 years older then the natural ageing process. As an increasing amount of research is showing, noise doesn't just affect your hearing, it affects many different aspects of your health. Just as air pollution can cause premature ageing, noise should probably also be considered. The mos

It's the first day NoiseNet. Maybe I should start by saying where the idea came from. My personal experience has seen me living in houses which were beautifully quiet - and others where noise was a real issue. Everyone has their own sensitivity to noise - not just the volume but the duration, time of day and also the type of noise. NoiseNet is about helping people to understand their own noise tolerance, and to think about what that means for them. It's then about matching