Road Traffic Noise - A study of region Skåne, Sweden

Abstract: Since the first car appeared, the pollution on the roads became an issue, which is still mainly unsolved. Too many people complain about traffic noise. Various methods have been developed that aimed at minimizing the noise pollution and improving the environment. This thesis presents the problems posed by noise pollution, covers the background of noise pollution and its effects on human health. Another important part of the thesis covers the method of noise calculation which applies in specific Nordic countries. The main goal of the thesis is to present maps of noise levels on roads for region Skåne in Sweden. Because the regulation and the limits for noise levels are different for different countries, I could find various calculators for traffic noise. Australia, England, USA have the noise level calculators open for public. Another professional calculator, SoundPlan, is a program that can perform a very accurate calculation for traffic noise but only for small areas. Because of this disadvantage, the request for my thesis was to provide a program which can calculate traffic noise level for wide areas. As a master student specialist in GIS (Geographic Information System) it was natural to develop the traffic noise calculator with available GIS tools. The software system to calculate the traffic noise maps was implemented in ArcMap 9.1, a GIS program which allows creation of tools, according to a mathematical description of noise calculator. The mathematical description is based on the Nordic Prediction method, a document which set up requirements for prediction of road traffic noise. ArcMap 9.1 allows the development of extensions in different programming languages. The tools implemented in this thesis are written in Visual Basic. The thesis work implements several tools for calculating noise levels, starting from the basic traffic noise level and introducing additional noise corrections to perform more accurate noise calculation. The additional corrections could be added because I had access to additional data regarding buildings and population location. The available population data from Lund gave me the opportunity to create a tool which performs population exposure to noise in this region.