Noise is unwanted sound judged to be unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. Like air pollution, noise pollution is one of the serious matters of concern in urban areas. Noise pollution occurs when noise level exceeds certain limit and has deleterious effects on human health and wellness. The major sources of noise pollution are industries, road traffic, railways, airplane traffic and social celebrations. The traffic noise is notably high in cities due to higher density of population, frequent movement of people, good transport system coupled with increasing numbers of vehicles (on road). In this work, the assessments of traffic noise in Sambalpur city is presented. Twelve important locations were chosen for the assessment. Noise contours were drawn to visualize the spreading of traffic noise into its surroundings. At the same time, the effect of noise pollution on wellness of the exposed people was studied. The study shows that the traffic noise level and its effects, are both in an alarming stage in the city.

Malaysia’s construction industry is experiencing rapid growth, translating into increased demand for cement. However, cement production pollutes the air to the detriment of the climate via CO2 emission, making research into a cementitious replacement in concrete a necessity. This paper details an experimental study of self-compacting concrete (SCC) with partial replacement of cement by rice straw ash (RSA), which is expected to result in environmental preservation due to the green materials being used in cement production. The physicomechanical properties of the SCC with RSA replacement were determined via its compressive strength, water absorption, self-workability, and fire resistance (residual strength after exposure to high temperatures). The proportion of RSA replacement used were 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25%, and all passed the slump flow test, except the 20% and 25% samples. The SCC samples with 15% of RSA replacement reported the highest compressive strength at 7 and 28 curing days and the highest residual strength post-exposure to high temperatures. The lowest percentage of water absorption was reported by the 15% of RSA replacement, with a density of 2370 kg/m3.