Estimation of Populations Exposed to Road Traffic Noise in Districts of Seoul Metropolitan Area of Korea

Abstract

This study aims to model road traffic noise levels and estimate the human exposure at the 25 districts in the metropolitan Seoul, Republic of Korea. The SoundPLAN® Version 7.1 software package was used to model noise levels and simulated road traffic noise maps were created. The people exposed to daytime/nighttime road traffic noise were also estimated. The proportions of the population exposed to road traffic noise in major cities in the EU were also estimated and compared. Eight (8) districts show the exceeded rate (percentage of the exposed population exceeding the daytime standard) of 20% or more, and eleven (11) districts show 10%-20% and six (6) districts show less than 10%, which indicates considerable variation among districts. Two districts (Nowon-gu and Yangcheon-gu) show the highest exposure rate during the daytime (35.2%). For nighttime noise levels, fourteen (14) districts show the exceeded rate (percentage of exposed population exceeding the nighttime standard) over 30%. The average percentages of the exposed population exceeding the daytime/nighttime standards in Seoul and the EU were 16.6%/34.8% and 13.0%/16.1%, respectively. The results show that road traffic noise reduction measures should urgently be taken for the nighttime traffic noise in Seoul. When the grid noise map and the 3-D façade noise map were compared, the 3-D façade noise map was more accurate in estimating exposed population in citywide noise mapping.

The Influence of Low-Frequency Noise Pollution on the Quality of Life and Place in Sustainable Cities: A Case Study from Northern Portugal

“…After the 1970s, several studies began highlighting the discomfort caused by environmental noise [3,8], especially traffic noise [1,[13][14][15]. The most cited effects on human health refer to emotional changes, namely agitation, distraction, disappointment, stress, hypertension [7,[16][17][18] and the association of low-frequency noise with cognitive impairments [19], the development of cardiovascular diseases [20,21], disturbances in sleep and heart rate [22][23][24] and hypertension [25,26].…”

The Public Health Impact of Road-Traffic Noise in a Highly-Populated City, Republic of Korea: Annoyance and Sleep Disturbance

“…This research adopted the levels of road traffic noise received at each facade of every floor for a building in assessing the psychological impacts of human exposure. Such a noise map was known to result in more accurate estimates of human exposure in the ROK [50]. To do so, we produced a facade noise map with day-night noise level, i.e., L DN , using the following equation:…”

“…Road traffic noise has been found to have a strong association with annoyance and directly caused awakening and alterations of sleep stages, particularly at night [21,22,[43][44][45][46][47][48].Perceiving transportation noise as an environmental problem, the Republic of Korea (ROK), which is an emerging country in Asia, recently amended the Noise and Vibration Regulation Act of 1990 to produce road traffic noise maps for highly-populated urban areas. Some studies using the maps pointed out that the road traffic noise levels of ROK were higher than those of EU member states and many people were exposed to very high noise levels [49,50]. However, the researches offer limited reporting on the number of people exposed to road-traffic noise levels, and the ill-impacts of road traffic noise on health.This research aims at providing an overview of the health impacts of road traffic noise in a densely-populated metropolitan city of the ROK, focusing on annoyance and sleep disturbance.…”

“…Perceiving transportation noise as an environmental problem, the Republic of Korea (ROK), which is an emerging country in Asia, recently amended the Noise and Vibration Regulation Act of 1990 to produce road traffic noise maps for highly-populated urban areas. Some studies using the maps pointed out that the road traffic noise levels of ROK were higher than those of EU member states and many people were exposed to very high noise levels [49,50]. However, the researches offer limited reporting on the number of people exposed to road-traffic noise levels, and the ill-impacts of road traffic noise on health.…”

Assessment of Soil Health in Urban Agriculture: Soil Enzymes and Microbial Properties

“…The exchangeable cations (Ca 2+ , K + , Mg 2+ , and Na + ) were extracted with 1 M ammonium acetate, pH 7 and then analyzed by an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES, GBC Integra XL, Analytical Solutions Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia). Soil organic matter was determined using the modified Walkey and Black method and the Tyurin titrimetric method with acid-wet oxidation and dichromate [34]. Soil P 2 O 5 content was determined by the Lancaster method [35].…”