I was camping last week in the White Mountains national forest, and like most urban-dwellers accustomed to the city’s soundscape, I was struck by how quiet the woods are. In fact, I became acutely aware of the noises around me simply because there were so few: the acoustic buzz of mosquitoes, a few scavenging squirrels, and a particularly industrious woodpecker that was apparently intent on developing the tree next to my tent into riverfront condos.

Like many, I’ve developed a relative immunity to most urban noise. Traffic, honking horns, emergency sirens are all part of the tapestry of city life. Yet according to the World Health Organization (WHO) such noise can actually be deadly, responsible for some 200,000 deaths in Europe alone.

Since 2003 a WHO working group has been studying the burden of disease from environmental noise. Their findings suggest that the long-term effects of exposure to noise such as long-term sleep disturbance and cardiovascular problems may account for 3 percent of deaths in Europe - typically in the form of strokes and heart attacks.

Governments, at least European ones, are starting to take action. According to a recent article by New Scientist, by the end of the year all European cities with populations over 250k will be required to have produced digitized noise maps showing “hotspots” where traffic noise and volume are greatest.

Such a cartography of noise is part of growing trend toward using sensing technology to “make the invisible visible”. Christian Nold’s Biomapping project is creating “emotion maps” of cities, using simple galvanic sensors to highlight and map community places where citizens feel stressed or excited. Similarly, the San Francisco Exploratorium’s Cabspotting project traces the patterns of taxi cabs as they travel throughout the Bay area, revealing subtle economic, social and cultural trends.

As our ability to ?make the invisible visible’ increases through the use of such collaborative cartography, how will our perception of - and ultimately our interaction with - our environment change?

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