**2.3 Long time measurements**

To carry out long measurements, three noise monitoring equipment have been placed in fixed locations during 11 months, and another one has been moved among different locations. This hybrid procedure is quite common to increase the temporal and spatial resolution [17].

The location of two of these fixed equipments has been chosen to take into account the main areas of the town: Old town and Carretería Street. The third has been located to characterize the residential noise of the town (Acacia Uceta Street).

The moving equipment has been located in different places in order to characterize the noise in different kinds of streets in the town. The locations of this equipment were: República Argentina Avenue, 16 (3 months), Mediterráneo Avenue (4 months), Hermanos Valdés Street, 4 (2 months).

The location of each monitoring equipment can be observed in **Figure 1**, and their accurate location is in **Table 1**.

**Figure 1.** *Monitoring equipment locations.*

*Noise Profile Categorization for Noise Mapping in Cities: The Case of Cuenca (Spain) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104396*


#### **Table 1.**

*Monitoring equipment locations.*

The equipment has been installed at 4 m height and 2 m from the facade according to the regulations [18]. For that, a bracket fixed to the facade has been used with an outdoor microphone. In **Figure 2** the microphone installation can be observed.

The microphone calibration was checked manually when the equipment was installed when it was removed, and at least once a week. If there was an error, the equipment was repaired or replaced. Moreover, four automatic CIC calibrations per day were configured at 00, 10, 14, and 19 h, which were permanently monitored and checked.

The main acoustic parameters that have been measured were:


**Figure 2.** *Microphone installation.*


After taking the measurements for a whole month, a validation process was carried out. First of all the automatic calibrations were checked. If there was any error, data between the last correct calibration and the first one (the wrong calibration would be in the middle) were removed because it is not possible to know when the equipment failed. For instance, if calibrations at 10 h and at 19 h were right, and calibration at 14 h was wrong, data from 10 to 19 h were removed.

Then, the meteorological conditions were checked [18]. If it was raining, data for this period of time were removed. Moreover, if the average speed of the wind during a certain day was higher than 4 m/s (it is more restrictive than the regulations 5 m/s-), data for this day were also removed.

After these validations, a more detailed analysis of the LAeq parameter was done. Analyzing the time profile and the audio files, anomalous events have also been removed, for instance, if events in the street that are not representative of the typical behavior of the area took place (parades, parties, etc.).

With this, all the data considered for the studio could be assessed as correct. Once the data have been validated, three different hour profiles have been obtained each month, the whole month profile, the working day profile, and the non-working day profile. To obtain these profiles, data for each hour have been averaged. The profiles obtained for all the months during the period of time when the equipment was in a certain location were similar. With this, all the hour profiles were also averaged to obtain the typical hour profile of the area.
