Noise Levels in The Islands, Gilbert, AZ | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
55 dBA
Average noise across The Islands
Quiet office to normal conversation
1,489
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
37% of The Islands residents
64 dBA
Loudest residential point
Busy restaurant
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across The Islands 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.
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 1,489 The Islands residents, or 37.2%, live above that level. By land area, 38.6% of The Islands is above 55 dBA.
61.4% below 55 dBA
38.6% above 55 dBA
See how noise in The Islands compares to similar-sized neighborhoods.
Noise by Part of The Islands
Average noise levels for The Islands residents, grouped by direction from the center of The Islands. The highest population-weighted average is in northwestern The Islands; the lowest is in southeastern The Islands, where just 30% of residents live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in the loudest section.
Northwestern The Islands
55.8 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Central The Islands
55.4 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Southwestern The Islands
54.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Eastern The Islands
53.8 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
Southeastern The Islands
53.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
To the human ear, noise in northwestern The Islands sounds about 16% louder than in southeastern The Islands, a 2.2 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 64 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
64 dBA
Busy restaurant
165 ft
51 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
330 ft
44 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
660 ft
37 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 1% of The Islands sits under tree canopy (much lighter than most neighborhoods) and roughly 42% 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
Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) sits northwest of The Islands. The U.S. Department of Transportation measures aviation noise around this airport directly, 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 75 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of The Islands, particularly to the southeast, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across The Islands
The bar chart below shows the share of The Islands residents in each noise band. About 51% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 0% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How The Islands Compares
The Islands sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how The Islands's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Clemente Ranch, Downtown Chandler, Wood Park, and Riverside.
Average noise level (dBA)
The Islands's 54.6 dBA pop-weighted average is at the louder end of the spectrum. Arizona as a whole averages 53.0 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than The Islands because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 37.2% of The Islands 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, 38.6% of The Islands's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Arizona average of 28.3% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to The Islands
- 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 1% of The Islands is under tree cover (much lighter than most neighborhoods), and the dominant land cover is low-intensity developed land. 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. Phoenix Sky Harbor International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the northwest. Neighborhoods to the southeast of downtown show no measurable contribution from the airport.
