Strategic noise map of a major road carried out with two environmental prediction software packages

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to analyze the differences found in the results of noise mapping using two of the most popular software techniques for the prediction of environmental noise. The location selected to conduct the comparative study is an area encompassed by the ring road that surrounds the city of Pamplona and on a grid, with a total of 6 x 10(5) points, approximately. In fact, and as the Environmental Noise Directive points out, it is a major road designated by a Member State (Spain). Configuration of the calculation parameters (discretization of the sources, ground absorption, reflection order, etc.) was as equivalent as possible as far as programs allow. In spite of that, a great number of differences appear in the findings. Although in 95.5% of the points the difference in the noise level calculated from the two programs was less than 3 dB, this general statistic result concealed some great differences. These are due to the various algorithms that programs implement to evaluate noise levels. Most differences pertain to highly screened receivers or remote ones. In the former, the algorithm of visibility is the main cause of such differences. In the latter, differences are mainly brought about by a different implementation of the propagation under homogeneous and favorable atmospheric conditions from both software systems.

Implementation of the EU environmental noise directive: Lessons from the first phase of strategic noise mapping and action planning in Ireland

“…It is also worth noting that different software packages, implementing the same calculation methodology, may yield different results (Hepworth, 2006;Nijland and Van Wee, 2005;Arana et al, 2009a). Indeed, differences for assessment of single positions can easily exceed 10 dB between Member States and eventually, within the same Member State, depending on the quality of the input values (Kephalopoulos et al, 2008).…”

Dynamic noise mapping: A map-based interpolation between noise measurements with high temporal resolution

“…0.1L eq,f (p,t) (13) According to Equations 9 and 13, the correction term δ for a specified source category m and propagation path category n becomes:…”

“…Simplifications implemented to allow fast evaluation could be a reason as well. Among others, the influence of meteorological effects, intermediate city canyons [9,10], green roofs [11], roof details [12] and terrain details [13,14] is not sufficiently captured.…”

Integrated road traffic noise mapping in urban Indian context

“…A developing nation like India faces serious effects of noise pollution in the last few eras due to substantial growth in the number of vehicles, heterogeneity, horn honking and urbanization [1][2][3]. Noise pollution due to urbanization and heterogeneous traffic conditions is identified as a major problem in developing nations with many harmful health effects [4][5][6]. Traffic noise pollution increase due to the composition of vehicular traffic on urban roads, which consists of heavy vehicles, four-wheelers, three-wheelers, two-wheelers, along with slow-moving vehicles such as bicycles [7][8][9].…”