This Report examines the role of noise impact assessment in the management of road traffic noise. Part 1 provides an overview of noise impact assessment including issues such as the existing noise environment, route selection and route changes, traffic volumes and compositions, noise criteria, noise modelling, prediction of noise levels, impact assessment, noise control requirements and recommendations. Part 2 examines noise modelling and discusses a range of related issues including commonly used noise models, traffic noise calculation methods. Part 3 examines noise measurement and monitoring and discusses a range of related issues including the specific quantities to be measured, measurement accuracy, measurement location, measurement duration, selection of sites and selection of valid days. Part 4 provides an overview of noise mitigation approaches and discusses three key noise mitigation principles: noise control at the noise source; noise reduction between the source and receiver, and noise reduction at the receiver. (Author/publisher)
Abstract