Noise Levels in Embalse San Jose, San Juan, PR | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
55 dBA
Average noise across Embalse San Jose
Quiet office to normal conversation
1,565
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
52% of Embalse San Jose residents
60 dBA
Loudest residential point
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Embalse San Jose at 100-meter resolution, combining road, aviation, and rail sources. Green areas measure below 45 dBA. Orange and red exceed the EPA's 55 dBA outdoor threshold linked to long-term health effects. Use the layer toggles to view each source on its own or all together.
Overall
Road
Rail
Aviation
Click the map to explore
35 dBa55 dBa (EPA limit)90+ dBa
3545557090
Quietest (dBA)Loudest
Colorblind friendlyoff
What the numbers sound like
30 dBAWhisper
40 dBASoft rainfall
45 dBAQuiet suburban street at night
50 dBAQuiet office
55 dBAEPA outdoor threshold: light traffic 100 ft away
60 dBANormal conversation an arm's length away
65 dBABusy restaurant
70 dBAHighway traffic 50 ft away
80 dBACity bus interior
Population Above the EPA Outdoor Threshold
The EPA's 55 dBA outdoor reference level is a common benchmark for residential noise exposure, especially for activity interference, annoyance, and long-term community noise concerns. About 1,565 Embalse San Jose residents, or 51.8%, live above that level. By land area, 49.2% of Embalse San Jose is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Embalse San Jose residents, grouped by direction from the center of Embalse San Jose. Northern Embalse San Jose carries the highest population-weighted average; Southern Embalse San Jose carries the lowest. Just 37% of residents in Southern Embalse San Jose live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in Northern Embalse San Jose.
Central Embalse San Jose
55.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
54% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Embalse San Jose
55.2 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
53% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Embalse San Jose
54.5 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
37% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Embalse San Jose
54.5 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
52% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Embalse San Jose sounds about 5% louder than Southern Embalse San Jose to the human ear, a 0.7 dBA gap. Every 10 dBA roughly doubles perceived loudness. Within any of these directions, two homes a quarter mile apart can still differ by 10 or more dBA depending on how close they sit to a major highway.
How far back from do you need to be?
produces an estimated 60 dBA at its loudest centerline points. Noise drops logarithmically with distance, with the exact rate depending on what's between you and the road. Tree cover, walls, terrain, and pavement type all matter. At roughly a quarter mile back, traffic fades into the noise level of a soft rainfall.
At source
60 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
165 ft
47 dBA
Quiet office
330 ft
40 dBA
Soft rainfall
660 ft
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 0% of Embalse San Jose sits under tree canopy (about average for neighborhoods) and roughly 0% is impervious surface like pavement and rooftops. Both are folded into the per-place decay rate above. Heavier canopy pulls noise down faster with distance; impervious surfaces slow the drop.
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Airport Noise
Luis Munoz Marin International (SJU) sits northeast of Embalse San Jose. The U.S. Department of Transportation models aviation noise around this airport from federal traffic data, and the model uses those federal measurements rather than synthetic predictions.
Blocks under the approach and departure paths carry combined road-plus-aviation noise, with some exceeding 45 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Embalse San Jose, particularly to the southwest, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Embalse San Jose
The bar chart below shows the share of Embalse San Jose residents in each noise band. About 50% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 3% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Embalse San Jose Compares
Embalse San Jose sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Embalse San Jose's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Buena Vista Santurce, Parcelas Hill Brothers, Urbanizacion Rivieras de Cupey, and Urbanizacion Floral Park.
Average noise level (dBA)
Embalse San Jose's 54.9 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. Puerto Rico as a whole averages 52.9 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Embalse San Jose because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 51.8% of Embalse San Jose residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's in the middle of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 49.2% of Embalse San Jose's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Puerto Rico average of 36.1% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Embalse San Jose
Distance from highways matters more than the neighborhood name. Two homes in the same zip code can differ by 20 dBA if one sits 100 meters from and the other 500 meters away. The model captures this at 100-meter resolution, so noise exposure changes block by block.
Tree canopy can help reduce modeled noise exposure. Roughly 0% of Embalse San Jose is under tree cover (about average for neighborhoods), and the dominant land cover is . Both are measured from federal USDA Forest Service and USGS satellite imagery at 30-meter resolution. Streets with 60% or higher canopy show 3 to 5 dBA lower noise than comparable streets with bare ground or pavement, which is why the per-place decay rate above already accounts for it.
Airport noise is directional. Luis Munoz Marin International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the northeast. Neighborhoods to the southwest of downtown show no measurable contribution from the airport.
Sources & Methodology
The BestNeighborhood noise model is calibrated against nearly one million federal ground-truth measurements across four states. Road noise is computed from segment-level federal traffic data and propagated outward using physics-based acoustic decay, with attenuation rates that depend on the surrounding land cover.
All inputs are published federal datasets. Block-level noise is computed by combining road, rail, and aviation sound sources in the energy domain, the same physics used in professional environmental noise assessments. Read the full methodology.
