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Environmental aspects: where to start

Noise, dust, vibration, weather and water are environmental aspects that most construction projects have to manage, and SiteHive is built to make that easier. Start here whether you are working to a management plan (or equivalent), or if you're still working out what limits to set and what to look out for.

The first part shows how a plan becomes Monitoring Points, rules, alerts and reports that run on their own. The second takes each aspect in turn: what SiteHive measures, what plans usually set, and what to watch for.

Start with your management plan

A plan says what to monitor and where, the limits that apply, what happens when a limit is reached, and what to report. Each part has a place in SiteHive Enviro, so work down your plan in this order.

  • Where you monitor. Each monitoring location in your plan becomes a Monitoring Point, with a device assigned to it. Steps: Add a device with Easy Setup

  • Limits and trigger levels. Each limit becomes a rule: an aspect, a parameter, a threshold and the hours it applies, such as Noise, LAeq over 15 minutes, during site hours. A plan with tiered trigger levels (an alert level below the limit, say) becomes one rule per level. Rules also draw the threshold on your graphs.

  • Who is told, and how. Each rule can notify the people your plan names, by email or SMS, as soon as its threshold is crossed. Steps for both: Set up rules and notifications

  • Investigating and responding. With SiteHive Enviro Pro, every exceedance can be recorded as an event, with its cause and the action taken, which is the record most plans ask you to keep: Events: investigate an exceedance

  • Reporting. Weekly or monthly PDF reports, statistics against your limits, and CSV exports for your consultant, with Daily notes so the explanation travels with the numbers: Reporting overview

  • Keeping up with the plan. Approvals get varied and stages change what is permitted. When your plan changes, so should your rules: Check your rules and notifications

ℹ️ Your limits come from your plan, your approval conditions or your environmental advisor, not from SiteHive. The notes under each aspect below describe what plans commonly use, to help you read yours. If something in your plan is hard to set up as a rule, contact your Regional Success Manager or support@sitehive.com.

Noise

How loud the works are at your neighbours, and what made each peak. The SiteHive Hexanode Noise measures sound levels continuously, captures a photo and an audio clip of significant moments, and shows the direction the noise came from.

Plans usually set: LAeq over 15 minutes at the nearest sensitive receivers, often relative to the background level and stricter outside standard hours, and sometimes LAmax at night for sleep disturbance.

Look out for: out-of-hours work, and short sharp sources such as reversing alarms, rock breakers and dropped loads. Listen to the audio before you explain an exceedance: traffic and other off-site noise often account for it.

Dust

How much airborne particulate the works are producing, and which way it is heading. The SiteHive Hexanode Dust measures PM10 and PM2.5 in real time, captures bi-directional photos during significant moments, and correlated with weather data to show the direction the dust likely came from. 

Plans usually set: PM10 as a 24-hour average, often anchored on the national air quality standard of 50 µg/m³, with a lower hourly trigger level so the site is warned before the limit is reached.

Look out for: dry, windy days, and wind blowing from the works towards your receivers. Check the direction the dust is coming from before you act: it may not be your site.

Vibration

Whether the works put structures, people or sensitive equipment at risk. The SiteHive Hexanode Vibration measures ground vibration on three axes and reports it as peak particle velocity (PPV) for structures, vibration dose value (VDV) for human comfort, and against Vibration Criterion curves for sensitive equipment.

Plans usually set: a PPV limit for nearby structures, commonly based on DIN 4150-3, with VDV for occupied buildings and VC curves where there is sensitive equipment such as a laboratory or a hospital.

Look out for: piling, rolling, rock breaking and demolition close to structures or occupied spaces. Each exceedance captures its waveform, so you can see what caused it before you report it.

Weather

The conditions that explain your other readings and decide what work can go ahead: wind, rain, temperature and humidity. The SiteHive Hexanode Weather measures them on site, with a forecast and weather alerts in the same Dashboard. Sites without one still see nearby weather from an external source or the Bureau of Meteorology beside their data.

Plans usually set: wind speed or gust levels that pause dusty work or crane lifts, rainfall amounts that call for an inspection of erosion and sediment controls, and heat levels for the workforce.

Look out for: the forecast as much as the reading: a rainfall alert the evening before gives you time to prepare.

Water

Whether runoff and discharge are affecting nearby waterways. SiteHive Water brings field readings from a handheld meter, laboratory results and real-time water devices into one record, checked against your thresholds in SiteHive Enviro Pro.

Plans usually set: pH, turbidity and other water quality measures at sediment basins and discharge points, often against the ANZG water quality guidelines, with upstream and downstream sampling to compare.

Look out for: rain. Most plans call for sampling after rainfall, so plan your sampling around the forecast.

Your data, and who can see it

Every aspect's readings, photos and audio are stored in Australia and seen only by the people you give access to. For the questions IT, procurement and privacy teams ask about a project: Data governance and IT security.