Noise mapping in urban environments: Application at Suez city center

Noise in cities has increased in the past decades, due to a growing urban development. In the last century, population movement to the greater cities, disorder planned city development and increase of the motor vehicle in the traffic have been produced noise pollution and other environmental problems. Management and reduction or urban noise has been called for in urban development plans. Noise community ordinances have been approved at national and local levels in various countries of the world. They usually establish noise limits for various activities and zones, according to the land uses, and define the basis of noise management strategies. It is required to draw noise maps, as a noise management tool, to be integrated in the Land Use Plans and to be used as a basis for noise reduction plans where the noise levels exceed maximum prescribed levels. Noise mapping in large urban areas presents methodological and financial hindrances due to both the technical complexity involved and to the amount of human and technical resources that are necessary. In some cases, noise pollution can be more important than the other environmental problems. The most important factor which affects the noise pollution is the mistakes taken place during the application of the city plans due to different political and social factors. In this investigation, effect of the application of city plan (use of ideal usage on the road and building areas, and ratio between buildings and green areas) on noise pollution was studied. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) plays an important role in the noise mapping. Noise pollution map of Suez city center in Egypt using GIS has been presented with the 400 sampling point selected on main roads in the city centre. A marked effect of increasing building levels on indoor noise pollution has been also found near the main roads. Problems are highlighted and discussed, especially those regarding the optimization of data quality and data management, the accuracy of the results and the benefits for the acoustical environment.