Mapping the health impacts of transport noise in the densely populated area of the Île-de-France region

Abstract

The European Noise Directive (END) requires agglomerations of more than 100,000 inhabitants to produce strategic noise maps. In the Ile-de-France region, 14 agglomerations with a total population of 10,5 million inhabitants are concerned. Bruitparif applied the health impact assessment methodology recommended by the WHO to carry out a detailed territorial diagnosis of the issues related to transport noise. For this purpose, population exposure was assessed on the basis of strategic noise maps produced according to the 4th round of the END and the associated risks were calculated using the exposure-response functions published by the WHO in October 2018. The work continued with the valuation of healthy life years lost due to transport noise. Two types of maps have been produced with a 200 m2 grid as well as at the city scale: maps of collective health impacts related to population noise exposure and maps of average individual risk corresponding to the potential impact per individual. The combination of these two types of information has made it possible to highlight significant territorial disparities and to identify the sectors most concerned by the health issues related to noise, a prerequisite for prioritizing public action.