Relationship between urban green spaces and other features of urban morphology with traffic noise distribution

Abstract

Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) eprints@whiterose.ac.uk https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version -refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher's website. TakedownIf you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing eprints@whiterose.ac.uk including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. Abstract: The effect of greenery on traffic noise mitigation has been extensively studied on the level of single plants, green walls, berms and hedges, but not considering whole sample areas within the cities. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between features of urban morphology related to green spaces, roads or buildings and traffic noise distribution in urban areas. The analysis was applied in eight UK cities with different historical and architectural background, following two different settlement forms (radial, linear). In each city a 30 km 2 grid was defined and three different levels of approach were considered (macro-scale, meso-scale, micro-scale). The first level regarded the eight cities as single entities, while in the second one every single tile of the applied grid was investigated in two different cities. In the third level only the eight city centres were analyzed. Statistical analysis was used combined with GIS tools. In total 18 variables were constructed and tested for possible relationships with noise levels (L den ). It was found that in spite of the fact that each city has its own dynamic and form, features of urban morphology were related to traffic noise levels to a different extent at each scale. At the macro-scale, the green space pattern was related to the structure of the city as well as the traffic noise levels in combination with the rest of the morphological parameters. At the meso-scale, an increase in internal road connectivity contributed to higher traffic noise. Green space variables explained part of the variance in traffic prediction models. Finally, at the micro-scale, it was also proved that different areas can have the same building coverage but different noise levels. Therefore, these indexes could be profiled and used as an "a priori" tool for urban sound planning.

Urban green spaces and the influence on vehicular traffic noise control

“…Moudon (2009) agrees with this statement and highlights that green spaces are useful in noise attenuation due to three factors: their physical characteristics, the restriction to a high concentration of population and car use restriction. In addition, Margaritis and Kang (2016) believe that the dispersion of green areas combined with the properties and attributes of roads and buildings are factors that considerably reduce noise levels.…”

“…Despite all the efforts and relevant results of these studies, there is still a lack of tools to support the extent of the effect of green areas in controlling noise pollution. Margaritis and Kang (2016) also relate green areas and some characteristics of urban morphology to traffic noise. Considering eight cities, this analysis included a large number of land use parameters, emphasising the need to combine green areas with areas where there are buildings, roads and demographic attributes to achieve urban noise reduction.…”

Relationship between green space-related morphology and noise pollution

“…Others include also the proximity to green areas (Herzele and Wiedemann, 2003;Hillsdon et al, 2006;Kabisch et al, 2016;Morar et al, 2014;Natural England, 2010;Ståhle, 2010) or more complex indices referring to the balance between green and built up areas (De la Barrera et al, 2016). Furthermore, there are shape-oriented indices, which can also measure the distribution of green spaces (Margaritis and Kang, 2016;McGarical and Marks, 1994;Verani et al, 2015).…”

Effects of built environment morphology on wind turbine noise exposure at building façades

“…Most of the studies have put emphasis on meso-scale urban morphology such as road and building coverage ratio, building plan area fraction, building frontal area index, and have related these parameters to the average, maximum and minimum noise exposure within the studied urban grid [26][27][28][29][30]. Other studies focus on the noise resisting effects of urban layout and formation such as urban density, green space ratio, road length and intersections, at larger urban-scale [31,32]. For this reason, the results of previous studies cannot be directly applied in predicting wind turbine noise with a focus on localised noise exposure at receptors at the building-scale, i.e.…”