Sensing noise exposure and its inequality based on noise complaint data through vision-language hybrid method

This study seeks to reveal urban noise exposure patterns and inequalities using noise complaint data and vision-language hybrid method. By applying a natural language processing model to 17,243 noise complaint records, we uncovered distinct patterns of traffic, industrial, and living noise exposures across residential communities. Our analysis of street view images near complaint locations, utilizing a Residual Network (ResNet) model and Class Activation Mapping (CAM), identified the key environmental elements of different noise sources. Notably, our assessment of noise exposure inequality across 9791 communities yielded a counterintuitive finding: contrary to previous studies in Western contexts, rich communities in China experience higher and more unequal noise exposure compared to average communities, with Gini coefficients exceeding 0.8. This unexpected result likely stems from China's unique rapid urbanization process. Our use of crowdsourced complaint data aligns more closely with human subjective perceptions of noise, offering a novel perspective on noise exposure inequality. These findings challenge existing assumptions about the relationship between socioeconomic status and environmental quality in urban China, and have significant implications for urban planning and noise management strategies in rapidly developing cities.