Identifying ways to reduce urban noise pollution by road noise prediction

Abstract

In order to investigate the possibilities of reducing the noise pollution in the central area of Pitesti municipality, acting simultaneously in both possible ways – both by reorganizing the road traffic and by applying noise protection measures – the results of road traffic measurements are to be processed, the main parameters of road traffic used as input data being the traffic structure (the weight of heavy vehicles in traffic flows), the hourly traffic volume and the average speed of traffic. An application was made for Building B of the University of Pitesti, using two different calculation programs for modeling road noise, both of them being based on the British CoRTN model. Taking into account the already existing proposals for the reorganization of road traffic in Pitesti (which represent, at the same time, active measures for the reduction of noise pollution) - that will also have effects on the road traffic in the central area under analysis, as well as the possibility to carry out urban planning for the attenuation of road noise propagation (passive measures to reduce noise pollution), a series of successive scenarios are under analysis. Thus, the first scenario is to reorganize traffic by eliminating heavy traffic in the central area, the second scenario involves the commissioning of the Prundu passage, when the flow of light vehicles will also be reduced, and the third scenario envisages the use of silent ground cover. Continuing the explorations, these active noise reduction measures are followed by scenarios providing for passive protection measures - the use of sound barriers. It is noted that the simultaneous application of these measures, in the most complex scenario, leads to a significant reduction of the noise level, which leads to the conclusion that only by simultaneously applying the determining factors for road noise can the noise level be reached within the recommended limits.