NoiseModelling: An Open Source GIS Based Tool to Produce Environmental Noise Maps

Abstract

The urbanisation phenomenon and related cities expansion and transport networks entail preventing the increase of population exposed to environmental pollution. Regarding noise exposure, the Environmental Noise Directive demands on main metropolis to produce noise maps. While based on standard methods, these latter are usually generated by proprietary software and require numerous input data concerning, for example, the buildings, land use, transportation network and traffic. The present work describes an open source implementation of a noise mapping tool fully implemented in a Geographic Information System compliant with the Open Geospatial Consortium standards. This integration makes easier at once the formatting and harvesting of noise model input data, cartographic rendering and output data linkage with population data. An application is given for a French city, which consists in estimating the impact of road traffic-related scenarios in terms of population exposure to noise levels in relation to both a threshold value and level classes.

Mapping Urban Environmental Performance with Emerging Data Sources: A Case of Urban Greenery and Traffic Noise in Sydney, Australia

“…Noise, defined as "unwanted sound", is perceived as an environmental stressor and nuisance that affects social behavior and is shown to be associated with hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and psychological symptoms. To estimate traffic noise levels in Sydney, we used NoiseModelling, a plugin of the open source OrbisGIS that enables the production of urban noise maps based on the French standard method for road noise emission and the NMPB method for noise propagation [29]. It consists of two steps: estimation of traffic noise emission over the road network and calculation of sound levels propagating over a receiver's grid.…”

“…After launching OrbisGIS and importing traffic volume data and building footprint polygons, we then set up the noise propagation model parameters before simulating how noise propagates in the network. A number of model parameters are adjustable whose formal definitions and value guidelines can be found in [29] including:…”

ZARATAMAP: Noise Characterization in the Scope of a Smart City through a Low Cost and Mobile Electronic Embedded System

“…Vogiatzis et al in [ 26 ] provide a good overview about different tools to handle a large amount of data related to environmental noise and the urban soundscape. At [ 27 ], Bocher et al present an open source implementation of a noise mapping tool fully implemented in a Geographic Information System compliant with the Open Geospatial Consortium standards.…”

Noise assessment of the small-scale wind farm

“…data for buildings (in -evenly distributed inside buildings (to determine the affected population). For modelling and calculation, NoiseModelling software was used [7] where all the elements above mentioned make a GIS database ( Geographic Information System) comprising the geometric elements and attributes of each element. The calculation model includes:…”