Road traffic noise causes many health problems and the deterioration of the quality of urban life; thus, adequate spatial noise and temporal assessment methods are required. Different methods have been proposed for the spatial evaluation of noise in cities, including the categorization method. Until now, this method has only been applied for the study of spatial variability with measurements taken over a week. In this work, continuous measurements of 1 year carried out in 21 different locations in Madrid (Spain), which has more than three million inhabitants, were analyzed. The annual average sound levels and the temporal variability were studied in the proposed categories. The results show that the three proposed categories highlight the spatial noise stratification of the studied city in each period of the day (day, evening, and night) and in the overall indicators (L(And), L(Aden), and L(A24)). Also, significant differences between the diurnal and nocturnal sound levels show functional stratification in these categories. Therefore, this functional stratification offers advantages from both spatial and temporal perspectives by reducing the sampling points and the measurement time.

The effects of noise pollution on human quality of life and health were recognised by the World Health Organisation a long time ago. There is a crucial dilemma for the study of urban noise when one is looking for proven methodologies that can allow, on the one hand, an increase in the quality of predictions, and on the other hand, saving resources in the spatial and temporal sampling. The temporal structure of urban noise is studied in this work from a different point of view. This methodology, based on Fourier analysis, is applied to several measurements of urban noise, mainly from road traffic and one-week long, carried out in two cities located on different continents and with different sociological life styles (Cáceres, Spain and Talca, Chile). Its capacity to predict annual noise levels from weekly measurements is studied. The relation between this methodology and the categorisation method is also analysed.

Previous studies concerning the categorisation method have been based on short daytime measurements. These studies demonstrated urban-noise stratification in the daytime. Nevertheless, legislation and standards refer to noise estimation throughout the day. This paper presents the first attempt to apply the categorisation method to indicators obtained through long-term measurements. The study was conducted in Plasencia, Extremadura (Spain) which has approximately 41,500 inhabitants. First, we conducted a stratification of the roads using the categorisation method. Second, long-term measurements (approximately one week) were conducted at different sampling locations across different categories of streets. The results were analysed by category. Moreover, the profile of the noise-level variation was analysed during the day. The results revealed a stratification of sound levels measured across the different categories. Furthermore, we found health risks due to the noise levels in this town. Short-term measurements were also conducted to complete the categorisation method suitability analysis.

No abstract

No abstract