Community and regional noise mapping in the United States

The mapping of background noise levels around communities in Europe is increasing rapidly, spurred on by the European Union Directive 2002/49/EC, which requires 'agglomerations' of more than 250,000 inhabitants to produce noise maps. This directive has been a catalyst for developing noise models that can handle the daunting task of computing propagation from thousands of miles of highways, railroads, and other sources. While the United States has been slow to catch on to regional noise mapping, the tools that were developed in Europe can be implemented almost seamlessly into U.S. projects. This is because the most advanced noise mapping models can interact with GIS-based transportation models, GIS (Geographic Information Systems), CAD (Computer Aided Design) files, and image file formats that are commonly used in the U.S. This article describes a demonstration project in Chittenden County, VT, that uses existing transportation, GIS, and CAD data in Datakustik's CadnaA sound propagation model to create a map of traffic and rail noise over the county's 539-square-mile area.