China developing natural sound database to better tackle urban noise pollution

The China National Environmental Monitoring Center (CNEMC) has launched the establishment of a database of natural sounds within urban areas this year, aiming to help manage urban noise pollution by more accurately identifying and differentiating natural sounds from artificial noises.

China plans to build a unified national network for automatically monitoring acoustic environmental quality starting on January 1, 2025. The system will focus on monitoring urban man-made noises, but at the same time, it will also unavoidably include natural sounds from birds and insects, as well as the rustling of wind and rain. These natural sounds could affect the accuracy of noise assessments, so it is necessary to collect them in a database so as to better identify and classify different types of noise. By the Dianchi Lake in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, local environmental monitoring professionals used specific equipment to capture various sounds within a wetland park. They collected sounds from birds, insects, and frogs, along with natural noises like rain, thunder, and wind. These sounds could potentially influence the monitoring results of urban acoustic environmental quality.

They recorded sounds for at least two hours at each monitoring location. They then used specialized software to analyze these recordings, selecting the clearer and less disrupted natural sounds to upload them into the database.

"The natural sounds in this recording are relatively clear and distinct, and the background noise is relatively low, so it is valid. But look at the waveform of this recording, the bird or insect sounds are unclear, and the environmental noise is relatively loud. Based on these two criteria, this recording is invalid," said He Fanyu, an engineer at the Yunnan Ecological and Environment Monitoring Center.

Since the first quarter of this year, the CNEMC has organized local environmental monitoring stations to record natural sounds in urban areas of over 80 cities. As of now, more than 420,000 raw recordings have been made, with 80,000 of them being valid. By the end of the year, it is expected that 600,000 valid recordings will have been collected nationwide for the development of China's largest noise database.

"After the database is built, our next step is to train and test an intelligent sound recognition model. It will help us not only to check if noise levels exceed allowed limits but also to identify where the excess noise is coming from. For example, construction noise is temporary and highly variable, so it requires specific management, especially during nighttime," said Wang Yun, a senior engineer at the Physics Department of the CNEMC.

China developing natural sound database to better tackle urban noise pollution

China and Kazakhstan have witnessed an upsurge in people-to-people and cultural exchanges in recent years, a development that Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed in a signed article published in Kazakh media outlets prior to his visit to the central Asian country.

Xi arrived for a state visit to Kazakhstan on Tuesday, where he will also attend the 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

On the same day, the signed article from the Chinese president was published in the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper and Kazinform International News Agency under the title "Staying True to Our Shared Commitment and Opening a New Chapter in China-Kazakhstan Relations."

In the article, Xi highlighted the enduring friendship between the Chinese and Kazakh peoples, citing an example involving Chinese musician Xian Xinhai and Kazakh composer Bakhytzhan Baikadamov.

Over 80 years ago, Xian and Baikadamov met and became close and devoted friends despite their different nationalities and languages.

"In 1943, my father happened to meet Xian Xinghai, who was sitting on a box holding a violin. Seeing how helpless and homeless Xian was, my father took his hand and brought him home," Baikadamova's daughter Baldyrgan said.

Xi also mentioned the much-respected Kazakh ophthalmologist Saulebek Kabibekov, who treated more than 200,000 patients during his 25-year stay in northeastern China.

There was also a nod to the hugely popular Kazakh singer Dimash Kudaibergen, who took China by storm after he won the second place in a popular reality singing competition, "Singer 2017", and later had the chance to meet Xi.

"I first met President Xi in 2017. After the performance, he came to me and told me about his impressions [of] my work and musical journey in China. Since then, I've been exploring Chinese culture and history which, of course, has inspired me infinitely," said Kudaibergen.

People-to-people exchanges between the two countries have also become more frequent since mutual visa-exemption arrangements took effect last year, facilitating greater travel between the two sides.

Last year, a total of 600,000 cross-border trips were recorded. In the first quarter of 2024, the number of visits in both directions had already amounted to 200,000 and are expected to reach a new high by the end of the year.

China, Kazakhstan see upsurge in people-to-people, cultural exchanges