Abstract
This study aims to model road traffic noise levels and estimate the human exposure at the 25 districts in the metropolitan Seoul, Republic of Korea. The SoundPLAN® Version 7.1 software package was used to model noise levels and simulated road traffic noise maps were created. The people exposed to daytime/nighttime road traffic noise were also estimated. The proportions of the population exposed to road traffic noise in major cities in the EU were also estimated and compared. Eight (8) districts show the exceeded rate (percentage of the exposed population exceeding the daytime standard) of 20% or more, and eleven (11) districts show 10%-20% and six (6) districts show less than 10%, which indicates considerable variation among districts. Two districts (Nowon-gu and Yangcheon-gu) show the highest exposure rate during the daytime (35.2%). For nighttime noise levels, fourteen (14) districts show the exceeded rate (percentage of exposed population exceeding the nighttime standard) over 30%. The average percentages of the exposed population exceeding the daytime/nighttime standards in Seoul and the EU were 16.6%/34.8% and 13.0%/16.1%, respectively. The results show that road traffic noise reduction measures should urgently be taken for the nighttime traffic noise in Seoul. When the grid noise map and the 3-D façade noise map were compared, the 3-D façade noise map was more accurate in estimating exposed population in citywide noise mapping.
Highlights
Road traffic is one of the major sources of community noise in metropolitan cities
By the estimation of World Health organization (WHO), the population exposed to road traffic noise above the acceptable levels of the WHO in EU is more than 30%
We developed a 3-D noise map to estimate the road traffic noise levels and estimated the populations exposed to road traffic noise for 25 districts of the Seoul metropolitan area
Summary
Road traffic is one of the major sources of community noise in metropolitan cities. By the estimation of World Health organization (WHO), the population exposed to road traffic noise above the acceptable levels of the WHO in EU is more than 30%. It is reported that cardiovascular risk among young healthy individuals has an association with road traffic noise annoyance [5]. Numerous studies on the correlation between environmental noise and human health have been conducted: road traffic noise and the effect on hypertension and heart disease [6], how noise creates annoyance and disturbs sleep [1], the relationship between traffic noise annoyance and the indoor sound level [7], a questionnaire-based study on the effect of road traffic noise levels and health-related symptoms for women residents of Tokyo [8], relations between stress hormones associated with noise and the risk of cardiovascular diseases [9,10], a study on the quiet side effect in dwellings [11,12], etc
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