How to Map Noise

John Hinton
Birmingham City Council, Birmingham UK

Noise mapping is a method of presenting complex noise information in a clear and simple way
either on a physical map or in a database. This mapping information can be either calculated
or measured using a variety of techniques and methods. Furthermore, the results of such
exercises can be presented in many different ways and used for a number of different purposes.
This paper attempts to examine these issues in the light of the "mapping requirements"
outlined in the recently proposed Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council,
relating to the Assessment and Management of Environmental Noise (Comm (2000) 468 final).
This proposed Directive was laid before the Parliament and Council in the autumn of 2000.
The First Reading of the proposal was successfully negotiated just before Christmas 2000. The
Second Reading is likely to commence shortly.
Keywords: Noise-Mapping, European Directive, Birmingham
Introduction
For many years the EU and others have
developed and produced legislation to control
the noise emitted by individual sources most
notably road vehicles. However, there is a
widely held belief that in many areas the noise
levels experienced by communities, particularly
from transportation sources, are rising.

According to the version of the proposed

Directive that is current at time of preparing this
paper, the Directive will require Member States
to adopt the measures necessary to ensure that
competent authorities produce the noise
mapping data and noise maps referred to in
Figure 1. For agglomerations with more than
250,000 inhabitants and for all major roads,
In their Green Paper of 1996 on future noise railways and airports both inside and outside
policy the EC estimated that between 17% and these areas, maps and associated data must be
22% of the population of the EU suffered from produced within five years of the Directive
environmental noise levels it considered coming into force. From this information action
unacceptable (day time levels greater than 65 plans for noise reduction must be drawn up and
dB LAeq). It was also claimed that 90% of this approved within just one more year.
problem was caused by road traffic.
For agglomerations with more than 100,000
It is against this background that the inhabitants maps and associated data must be
Commission has moved towards action on produced within ten years of the Directive
Similarly, from the
environmental noise. A major part of this coming into force.
information
produced
action
plans for noise
initiative is the proposed Directive on the
Assessment and Management of Environmental reduction must be drawn up and approved within
Noise which will require the acquisition of data just one more year.
through noise mapping across the EU.
As Figure 1 indicates, Member States will also
The Commissions overall strategy towards be required to ensure that the noise mapping
tackling the problems caused by transport and information is used for two further purposes:
industrial noise in Europe is outlined in Diagram To provide a source of information for the
public (Article 9 of the proposed Directive);
1.
Noise & Health 2002, 4;15, 1-5

Figure 1.

To provide a basis for the data on noise

exposure to be sent to the EC data bank (Articles
10(1), 10(2) and Annex VI of the proposed
Directive).
The data to be sent to the Commission will
include the following:
The total number of people living in dwellings
exposed to noise levels divided into 5 dB bands
of Lden on the most exposed faade (55 to >75
dB);
Total number of people living in dwellings
exposed to noise levels divided into 5 dB bands
of Lnight on the most exposed faade (50 to >70
dB);
Where available and appropriate the total
number of people living in dwellings with
special insulation that fall into the different
bands of Lden and Lnight on the most exposed
faade;
Where available and appropriate the number
of people living in dwellings with a relatively
quiet faade that fall into the different bands of
Lden and Lnight on the most exposed faade.

Methods of Producing Noise Mapping

Information and Noise Maps to Satisfy the
Requirements of the Proposed Directive
It is intended that, eventually, noise mapping
shall be carried out using modern, harmonised
techniques. However, it appears that the
development of such techniques will take several
years. It is therefore proposed that, initially,
noise mapping is undertaken using interim
measurement or computation methods.
However, there are disadvantages in using
labour-intensive measurement methods and
perhaps Member States should be discouraged
from using such methods even at this early stage.
The time and money spent taking these
measurements may be better used acquiring the
input data required for mapping by computation.
Such data includes information on:
Road traffic flows, speeds and composition;
Road surface construction and road gradient;
Train speeds, length of trains and type of
locomotive and rolling stock;
Rail track types and gradients;
Aircraft movements and aircraft types;
Types of industrial noise source.

Once this data has been acquired, Member States

can use their existing national methods for the
determination of long-term indicators provided
they are adapted to calculate Lden and Lnight.
However, for Member States with no existing
national methods, or for those who wish to
change to other methods, the following methods
have been recommended in the proposed
Directive:
Industrial Noise ISO 9613-2 Acoustics
Attenuation of Sound Propagation Outdoors,
Part 2, General Method of Calculation;

Aircraft
Noise
around Airports
ECAC.CEAC.Doc 29 Report on Standard
Method of Computing Noise Contours around
Civil Airports, 1997;
Road traffic noise. The French national
computation method NMPB;
Railway noise. The national computation
method of the Netherlands, 1996.
Noise Mapping Software
The noise mapping software used to implement
the proposed Directive should include the

following components:
The recommended computation methods and
other national methods as appropriate for
calculating noise from road traffic, rail traffic,
aircraft and industry;

A site-modelling facility which can

accommodate data on the location, shape and
height of all buildings and relevant noise
sources, and can also include data on ground
contours and noise screens for the area to be
mapped;
Facilities to export data to, and import data
from, Geographical Information Systems (GISs);
Facilities for presenting noise level data in a
variety of formats.
Presentation of Noise Mapping Information
As identified previously there are three main
purposes for noise mapping as required in the
proposed Directive:
To inform the public about noise exposure
To produce data on noise exposure in Member
States and send these to the EC data bank
To develop action plans for noise reduction.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Information to the Public

In order to inform the public about noise
exposure, the grid-based sound immission data
normally created by noise mapping software, or
the sound immission data outside buildings that
can now be created by such software, need to be
used to produce Sound Immission Contour Maps
(SICMs) in terms of Lden and Lnight for the entire
area of interest. Normally, the contours would
be shown in 5 dB steps. These maps will show
the public the noise levels outside their
properties and enable them to compare noise
levels in one area with another.
The information from these maps can also be
used to produce noise exceedance maps for the
general public showing where national or local
limit values are exceeded. However, such an
approach could be viewed as being rather a
negative way of presenting noise mapping data
to the public.
A more positive approach may be to present the
public with noise difference maps which
would be directly linked to the development of
action plans. These difference maps would show
the reduction in noise that should result if
various noise reduction actions were
implemented. One way of using SICMs and
4

noise difference maps to inform the public and to

develop cost-effective action plans is illustrated
in Figure 2.
Noise Exposure Data
To produce the required noise exposure data
noise mapping information must provide noise
levels outside buildings. These noise levels then
need to be linked to building occupancy. There
are a number of ways of carrying out the latter
task. For example, the number of people living
in residential properties could be estimated from
the available floor area. However, a more
satisfactory way of determining the exposure
could be to link each residential unit to a unique
property reference number (UPRN) and
subsequently calculate noise levels outside each
unit which are also linked to these UPRNs. The
next step would be to acquire population
distribution data that is also linked to these
UPRNs. Finally, the population data and the
noise level data need to be brought together in a
Geograhical Information System (GIS)
environment to calculate the number of people
exposed to noise in the different bands of Lden
and Lnight. A project of this nature is currently
underway in the City of Birmingham (UK). The
project is illustrated in Figure 3.

Preliminary results from this project suggest that

the following percentages of the population of
Birmingham are living in dwellings where the
daytime LAeq(16hr) free field noise levels outside
the most exposed faade exceed 60dB, 65dB and
70dB:
20.6% over 60dB;
12.5% over 65dB;
2.5% over 70dB.
Action Plans
Action plans may be developed simply by
studying SICMs to determine the most
appropriate areas for action. Alternatively, socalled conflict maps may be produced which
take account of the number of persons exposed
to unacceptably high levels of noise in different
areas. Through this process priorities can be
identified when budgets for noise reduction
actions are limited.
However, some actions, e.g. reducing road
width, reducing speed limits and implementing
lorry bans, can reduce noise levels in the targeted
areas but increase noise in other areas. In some
circumstances, therefore, it may be appropriate
to take a more holistic approach and evaluate the
effects of action plans across an entire city or
agglomeration. Such a project is currently
underway in Birmingham. This project involves
changing the relevant source and GIS input data
(see Figure 3) to evaluate the effect of possible
action plans on the number of people exposed to
various levels of Lday and Lnight. So far two
noise reduction scenarios have been modelled.
In the first it has been assumed that the speed
limit on motorways has been reduced to 50 mph
and bus only lanes have been installed on all
dual carriageways in the City along with an
associated 30 mph speed limit. In the second the
effects of introducing workplace car parking
charging has been evaluated. The results of both
of these exercises are currently being analysed.
Conclusions
Many of the ideas and issues discussed in this
paper will be considered by EC Working Group
4 - Noise Mapping. In the light of the publication
of the proposed Directive, the Working Group
has recently redefined its tasks and goals.

These are now seen to be the following:

to identify and specify the required input data
for noise mapping software (source, geographic
and demographic) and to recommend best
practice for acquiring this information;

to examine the quality control issues

concerning; the noise source input data required
for noise mapping by calculation; the software
that will carry these calculations; the competent
use of the calculation methods and associated
software. This task should be carried out in
consultation with EC Working Group 3
Computation and Measurement;
to determine how noise mapping information
can be linked to population distribution data to
produce the exposure data required for the EC
noise data bank;
to determine how to develop noise action plans
from noise mapping information. This task
should be carried out in consultation with EC
Working Group 5 Noise Abatement;
the identification of techniques for the most
effective presentation of noise mapping
information to the various target groups (public,
politicians and other decision-makers,
technicians and other professionals). This task
should be carried out in consultation with EC
Working Group 5 Noise Abatement;
the development of guidelines on noise
mapping including minimum requirements to
comply with the Directive and advice on best
practice techniques of presenting noise mapping
data (final report by August 2002).
Disclaimer
Any views or opinions expressed in this paper
are those of the author and not necessarily those
of Birmingham City Council, the European
Commission or Working Group 4.
Correspondence Address
John Hinton,
Birmingham City Council, Acoustics Section,
P.O. Box 5248, 581 Tyburn Road, Erdington,
Birmingham B24 9RF, UK

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without
permission.