Effects of natural sounds on the perception of road traffic noise

Recent studies show that introducing sound from water features in urban open spaces may reduce the loudness of road traffic noise, but it is not clear in which situations this measure also improves overall soundscape quality. This work describes a listening experiment on loudness, pleasantness, and eventfulness of stimuli that combine road traffic noise with fountain or bird sound at different sound levels. Adding fountain sound reduced the loudness of road traffic noise only if the latter had low temporal variability. Conversely, adding bird sound significantly enhanced soundscape pleasantness and eventfulness, more than what was achieved by adding fountain sound.     

Appraisal of Urban Road Traffic Noise in tier-II City (Surat City), India

Urban road traffic noise pollution has always been identified as a severe problem that affects urban populants. In developing nation, road traffic noise pollution depends on the composition of heterogeneous traffic composition. These traffic compositions contain vehicles, which have different sizes, speeds variations, a different dimension of vehicles. Environmental noise measurements have been carried out during day-time and night-time in different locations of tier-II city of India. The noise levels have been continuously measured over 24 h periods using kimo DB 300 class-2 noise level meter. The data contained in this research paper represent 768 measurement hours. All the information has been used to investigate the time patterns of the noise levels under a wide range of different conditions and to study the relationships between noise levels and traffic in urban areas. Maximum L_Aeq was observed 73.3 dB(A) at B₁₄ location and the minimum was recorded 65.7 dB(A) at C₃ location, which was greater than the central pollution control board (CPCB) prescribed limits during night time. A major reason for the generation of road traffic noise is due to the equal composition of 2-wheeler and 4-wheeler on the arterial road and heavy vehicles were recorded during morning peak and evening peak even though they are prohibited during peak hours.     

A threatened beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) population in the traffic lane: vessel-generated noise characteristics of the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park, Canada

The threatened resident beluga population of the St. Lawrence Estuary shares the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park with significant anthropogenic noise sources, including marine commercial traffic and a well-established, vessel-based whale-watching industry. Frequency-dependent (FD) weighting was used to approximate beluga hearing sensitivity to determine how noise exposure varied in time and space at six sites of high beluga summer residency. The relative contribution of each source to acoustic habitat degradation was estimated by measuring noise levels throughout the summer and noise signatures of typical vessel classes with respect to traffic volume and sound propagation characteristics. Rigid-hulled inflatable boats were the dominant noise source with respect to estimated beluga hearing sensitivity in the studied habitats due to their high occurrence and proximity, high correlation with site-specific FD-weighted sound levels, and the dominance of mid-frequencies (0.3-23 kHz) in their noise signatures. Median C-weighted sound pressure level (SPL(RMS)) had a range of 19 dB re 1 μPa between the noisiest and quietest sites. Broadband SPL(RMS) exceeded 120 dB re 1 μPa 8-32% of the time depending on the site. Impacts of these noise levels on St. Lawrence beluga will depend on exposure recurrence and individual responsiveness.     

A categorization method applied to the study of urban road traffic noise

The present work summarizes a study of the hypothesis that urban noise can be stratified by measuring street noise according to a prior classification of a town's streets according to their use in communicating the different zones of the town. The method was applied to five medium-sized Spanish towns (Vitoria-Gasteiz, Salamanca, Badajoz, Cáceres, and Mérida) with populations ranging from 218 000 down to 50000 and with different socio-economic characteristics, climate, etc. As the initial hypothesis of the work was that traffic is the main source of urban noise and is also the principal cause of the variability of the sound levels measured in urban settings, the study focused only on the five nonpedestrian categories of streets. The continuous equivalent sound level (Leq) was employed in the statistical analysis as it is commonly used as a general noise index, and other noise indicators such as L(DN) or L(DEN) are calculated from it. It was found that, although differences between the medians were not statistically significant in some of the towns for certain pairs of adjacent categories, the differences between pairs of nonadjacent categories were always significant, indicative of the stratification of noise in these five towns. Further studies on other medium-sized towns and on large towns and small villages would be needed to test whether the present definition of street categories is extensible elsewhere without modification.     

ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS IN RELATION TO URBAN RESIDENTIAL SOUNDSCAPES

Noise pollution from road traffic in residential areas is a growing environmental problem. New approaches to turn the negative trend are needed. The programme “Soundscape Support to Health” will achieve new knowledge about the adverse health effects of noise pollution on humans and will investigate the link between well-being and health and perceived soundscapes for optimizing the acoustic soundscapes in urban residential areas. This paper will briefly present the programme and presents preliminary results from the first study of how various adverse health effects are related to individual noise exposures among individuals in residential areas with and without access to a quiet side of the dwelling.     

Investigation of the dose-response relationship for road traffic noise in Assiut, Egypt

A field study has been carried out in urban Assiut city, Egypt. The goals of this study are: (1) to carry out measurements to evaluate road traffic noise levels, (2) to determine if these levels exceeds permissible levels, (3) to examine people’s attitudes towards road traffic noise, (4) to ascertain the relationship between road traffic noise levels and degree of annoyance. The measurements indicate that traffic noise noise levels are higher than those set by Egyptian noise standards and policy to protect public health and welfare in residential areas: equivalent continuous A - weighted sound pressure levels (L_A eq) = 80 dB and higher were recorded, while maximum permissible level is 65 dB. There is a strong relationship between road traffic noise levels and percentage of highly annoyed respondents. Higher road traffic noise levels mean that the percentage of respondents who feel highly annoyed is also increased.     

几类典型环境声的主观评价及感知特性分析

近年来,通过“注入”调控声以降低交通噪声烦恼感的声频注入法受到广泛关注。以交通噪声调控研究为背景,通过成对比较评价了4类典型声音(实验一)和4类典型交通噪声(实验二)的烦恼感。结果表明,有调声(纯音和复音)烦恼度最高,自然声最低(海潮声最佳),蓝色噪声是仅次于海潮声令人感觉舒适的声音;被试对交通噪声和白噪声的评价存在明显的分类偏好。分析心理声学特征发现人对声音的感知依赖于多方面因素,但声刺激的某一因素(如粗糙度或音调特别高)特别突出则会引起极大的反感。构建不相似度二维感知空间,维度1反映了声音类型间的差异,维度2表征了被试对不同类型声音的烦恼度评价;并且通过相关分析发现它们与谱结构参量相关性较强。接下来的研究中,可以通过调整交通噪声的谱下降值和时域上升时间等参量使其谱结构更接近于自然声,从而降低噪声烦恼度。     

滨海公共空间声环境感知评价及影响因素*

滨海公共空间是滨海城市人居环境的重要组成部分,其声环境质量是影响公共空间环境体验的关键因素。本研究以青岛沿海岸线四类滨海公共空间（步道类、广场类、公园类、沙滩类）的声环境为对象,通过问卷调查和实地测量探索滨海公共空间声环境的特征、感知评价及其影响因素。结果表明：（1）滨海公共空间当前环境噪声水平基本不超过国家标准限值55dB(A) ,各类空间声环境客观特征显著不同：公园噪声水平最低,自然声源丰富;广场噪声水平最高,各种城市噪声较多;步道噪声水平较低,但受到交通噪声的影响;沙滩噪声水平较高,但以中低频的海浪声为主,比较稳定。（2）各类滨海公共空间的声源感知以自然声为主,但是广场的自然声源感知较少。此外,声环境的愉悦感评价普遍较高,但在事件感、吵闹度和总体满意度评价上具有显著差异：沙滩声环境总体评价最好,其次是公园,广场和步道的声环境则亟待改善。（3）交通噪声和最大声级Lmax对声环境的负面影响最为显著,此外受访者年龄也是影响滨海公共空间声环境感知评价的关键因素。研究结论可以为滨海公共空间声环境的优化设计提供理论依据。     

The prediction of noise from urban traffic under interrupted flow conditions

A computer model is described for predicting noise levels generated by urban road traffic under interrupted flow conditions. The model is composed of two subsections. The first predicts the propagation characteristics of sound in typical street configurations and the second simulates the flow of road traffic in urban areas. The two subsections are combined to yield a model capable of predicting traffic noise levels in urban conditions.Predictions obtained from application of this model are compared with those given from application of predictive models based upon field measurements. The agreement between the predictions is good. It is shown that the model described in this paper can predict noise levels for situations which existing field-based models cannot handle.     

Assessment of Traffic Noise Pollution in Burla Town,India; An Inclusive Annoyance Study

Noise pollution is one of the major public health problems in urban areas throughout the world. Noise is unwanted sound which produces undesirable problems in day to day life of human being (e.g., physiological and psychological problems). Rapid increase of the industrialization, urbanization, infrastructure, volume of motor vehicles, and increase in the road networks brought noise pollution to the highest level of disaster in a current situation. In urban areas, road traffic noise plays commanding role among all noise sources and affects the exposed inhabitants. The present work is done to evaluate and assess the traffic noise and its effects in Burla town. Burla, Vidyanagari of Odisha, is an emerging town in India, as it hosts national level of teaching and research institutions like IIM Sambalpur, a medical college- cum-hospital (VIMSAR), a technical university (VSSUT) and Sambalpur University. In last two decade, the road traffic volume has been increased and is facing severe noise pollution to its inhabitants. Noise pollution assessment was made at different locations of the town. This study unveiled the dismal state of noise pollution in the town. Noise contour maps were drawn to visualize the noise level at the traffic and its surroundings. The numbers of hearing impaired patients in different hospitals of the locality are increasing. That shows grim picture of the situation. Regression equations were established taking noise levels with percentage of highly annoyed people during study indicates strong correlation.     

Effects of urban morphology on the traffic noise distribution through noise mapping: A comparative study between UK and China

Due to the rapid urban development and massive population increase in many eastern cities, the difference in urban density and morphology between typical western and eastern cities is becoming significant. This consequently makes the noise distribution in the eastern cities rather different from typical low density European cities. In this research, two representative cities with different urban densities, Greater Manchester in the UK and Wuhan in China, were selected, which have low and high average urban density respectively, and also have considerable differences in building form and traffic pattern. In the mean time, these two cities have similar urban scale and traffic amount. In each city, based on the urban morphological analyses considering urban land-use, building and road density, and noise source distribution, a number of typical urban areas, 500 * 500 m² each, were sampled. A noise-mapping software package was then used to generate generic noise maps, based on existing digital vector maps for terrain and building, and traffic data obtained by on-site measurements. The comparison results show that the average and minimum noise level in Greater Manchester samples is generally higher than that in Wuhan samples, while the maximum noise level in Wuhan samples is mostly higher. By developing a Matlab program, correlations have been analysed between noise distributions and the urban characteristics relating to urban density, such as the road and building coverage ratio. Overall, comparisons between these two typical cities have shown significant effects of urban morphology on the traffic noise distribution.     

Are adverse impacts of neighbourhood noisy areas the flip side of quiet area benefits?

Soundscape researchers have studied how localized areas of noise and quiet within a neighbourhood have an effect upon residential noise annoyance. In this paper, noisy and quiet areas are studied simultaneously using data from three surveys and a noise mapping effort for Oslo. Results indicate that noisy neighbourhoods have the potential to increase residential noise annoyance primarily for apartments exposed to low residential noise levels whereas quiet neighbourhood areas have the potential to reduce noise annoyance the most at intermediate and high residential noise levels. Adverse neighbourhood soundscapes are shown to increase residential noise annoyance also after adjusting for possible absence of quiet areas. Whereas Swedish research results document benefits of living in an apartment having access to a quiet facade, no beneficial impacts of quiet neighbourhood areas were found. Results indicate that adjustment factors for apartment having quiet façades and/or adverse soundscapes respectively, can be independently applied.     

Modeling of the roundabout noise impact

A roundabout is a very popular tool used by town planners for carrying smooth and stationary road traffic flow. In this study it is shown that the replacement of a classical road intersection by a roundabout, under certain conditions, may produce a traffic noise decrease. These conditions are expressed in terms of the roundabout speed and the receiver location. The A-weighted sound exposure level is used to describe noise reduction.     

A road traffic noise pattern simulation model that includes distributions of vehicle sound power levels

Annoyance, sleep disturbance and other health effects of road traffic noise exposure may be related to both level and number of noise events caused by traffic, not just to energy equivalent measures of exposure. Dynamic traffic noise prediction models that include instantaneous vehicle noise emissions can be used to estimate either of these measures. However, current state-of-the-art vehicle noise emission models typically consider a single emission law for each vehicle category, whereas measurements show that the variation in noise emission between vehicles within the same category can be considerable. It is essential that the influence of vehicles that are producing significantly more (or less) noise than the average vehicle are taken into account in modeling in order to correctly predict the levels and frequency of occurrence of road traffic noise events, and in particular to calculate indicators that characterize these noise events. Here, an approach for predicting instantaneous sound levels caused by road traffic is presented, which takes into account measured distributions of sound power levels produced by individual vehicles. For the setting of a receiver adjacent to a dual-lane road carrying free flow traffic, the effect of this approach on estimated percentile levels and sound event indicators is investigated.     

Traffic noise spectrum analysis: Dynamic modeling vs. experimental observations

This paper compares two traffic representations for the assessment of urban noise frequency spectrum: (i) a static one, based on mean vehicle speeds and flow rates, (ii) a dynamic one, which considers vehicle interactions along the network. The two representations are compared on their suitability to match real on-field noise levels, recorded on a three lane quite busy street. Representation (i) fails in reproducing spectra envelopes that correspond to this site. In particular, it underestimates low frequencies, what can conceal the real impact of traffic flow on urban sound quality. Representation (ii) greatly improves estimation. It guarantees accurate environmental noise assessment, since it reproduces all traffic situations that are encountered in the site. Moreover, its 1s-based structure allows for the evaluation of spectra variations, with a good accuracy.     

Development of a highway traffic noise prediction model that considers various road surface types

A highway traffic noise prediction model has been developed for environmental assessment in South Korea. The model is based on an outdoor sound propagation method and is fully compliant with ISO 9613 and the sound power level (PWL) estimation for a road segment, as suggested in the ASJ Model-1998 that is based on PWLs. Due to that model’s selection of two pavement types, such as asphalt or concrete pavement, an unacceptable traffic noise prediction is made in cases where the road surface is different from that on which the model is based. In order to address this problem, several road surface types are categorized, and the PWL of each surface type is determined and modeled by measuring the noise levels obtained from newly developed methods. An evaluation of the traffic noise prediction model using field measurements finds good agreement between predicted and measured noise levels.     

Modelling traffic noise mathematically

In this paper we describe a mathematical model for the prediction of traffic noise levels in an urban or suburban situation. The model is ultimately intended to provide an alternative to existing methods of prediction. At the present time, only noise levels produced by stationary sound sources have been considered.Any point in a chosen area is described by its grid co-ordinates. A detailed plan of the buildings or other structures in the area and the position(s) of the sound source(s) are needed as input to the model. Noise levels at all grid positions in the area are then calculated on the basis of the attenuation of sound due to direct propagation, diffraction and reflection.The results obtained so far are given and since the model is in an early stage of development, and has yet to be proved against measurements in real situations, possible refinements and future developments are discussed in some detail.     

Dynamic noise modeling at roundabouts

Modeling spatial and temporal noise variations at roundabouts is a tedious task. Indeed, noise levels are strongly influenced by the complex vehicle interactions taking place at the entries. An accurate modeling of the merging process and its impact on vehicle kinematics, waiting time at the yield signs and queue length dynamics is therefore required. Analytical noise prediction models disregard those impacts since they are based on average flow demand patterns and pre-defined kinematic profiles. The only way to capture all traffic dynamics impacts on noise levels is to combine a traffic simulation tool with noise emission laws and a sound propagation model. Yet, such existing dynamic noise prediction packages fail in representing vehicle interactions when the roundabout is congested and are difficult to calibrate due to their numerous parameters. A new traffic simulation tool, specifically developed for roundabouts, is therefore proposed in this paper. It has few easy-to-calibrate parameters and can be readily combined with noise emission and propagation laws. The obtained noise package is able to produce relevant dynamic noise contour maps which can support noise emission assessment of local traffic management policies. Results are validated against empirical data collected on a French suburban roundabout on two different peak periods.