Measurement and Monitoring of Climatic and Environmental Indicators in Crowded Spaces: Applications in Makkah City

Mobile crowd-sourced (MCS) noise monitoring, while promising, is susceptible to inaccuracies in sound level reporting. This study investigates the impact of measurement variations on reported noise levels and their spatial distribution within an indoor environment. A controlled sound source, generating two distinct sound pressure levels (SPLs) across different frequencies, was used. Twenty-five mobile phones collected noise level readings at various distances from the source. Our findings reveal significant discrepancies in the accuracy of MCS-based noise measurements, attributed to the statistical methodologies employed in data collection and processing. While MCS offers a convenient approach to noise monitoring, our results highlight the critical influence of these statistical methods. The dataset collected in this study is available as a CSV file.