Noise Contours

NoiseMap has comprehensive noise contouring capability.

The following noise contour shows the existing noise levels in an area affected by road traffic noise:

Road Traffic Noise Contour - Existing

The following  contour shows the noise levels when a new road has been added in the north-west of the area:

Road Traffic Noise Contour - With New Road

The following contour shows the increase of noise level arising from this new road and the change in traffic patterns:

Road Traffic Noise - Increase due to new road

The following diagram compares road traffic and railway noise in the area.  Bluish colours show where the railway noise level exceeds the traffic noise. In green, yellow and red areas, traffic noise exceeds railway noise.

Railway noise exceeds traffic noise

Contours are generated by calculating noise levels at an array of points covering area. The calculations use one of the standard calculation methods for each of the three main types of noise source that NoiseMap covers, namely road, rail or open site noise.  the calculated levels are stored in the database,

When a contour is required, the relevant results are retrieved from the database and the contour is generated according to parameters selected by the user.

The individual results are then further processed before display, for example to get the change of noise level between two scenarios, to get the effect of inserting a noise barrier, to combine different noise sources and many other more complex processes.