Avaliação da acústica em shopping centers de Maceió

Shopping centers are increasingly becoming popular as a leisure option in urban centers, as they offer security and provide protection against high urban temperatures. However, these spaces have become places of agglomeration, which results in very noisy environments due to the intense flow of people. Thus, this work aims to evaluate the acoustic environment of the three largest shopping centers in the city of Maceio, Brazil. The methodological steps of this study included the selection of shopping centers, sound measurements, the identification of noise sources in the spaces, and the analysis and discussion of the results, made through the collection of sound pressure levels and speech intelligibility levels. The results indicated that, in some of the scenarios studied, the sound levels were above what is allowed by the standards and may be harmful to hearing health in case of prolonged permanence. It was concluded that the lack of adequate acoustic materials in projects can contribute to high sound pressure levels and noise exposure.