DEFRA Noise Maps (England)

DEFRA Noise Maps (England)


Defra Map of Bristol day time road noise levels.

Noise maps only cover cities, but cover day noise (Lden) and night time (Lnight) noise levels
4 Layers are available - Road, Rail, Industry and Air noise.

The Noise Mapping England site currently supports the following urban areas only:

Birkenhead
Blackpool
Bournemouth
Brighton
Bristol
Coventry
Hull
Leicester
Liverpool
London
Manchester
Nottingham
Portsmouth
Preston
Reading
Sheffield
Southampton
Southend
Teeside
The Potteries
Tyneside
West Midlands
West Yorkshire

"The noise maps have been produced by Defra to meet the requirements of the Environmental Noise (England) Regulations 2006, and are intended to inform the production of noise action plans for large urban areas, major transport sources, and significant industrial sites in England.
Directive 2002/49/EC - more commonly known as the Environmental Noise Directive (END) - concerns noise from road, rail and air traffic and from industry. It focuses on the impact of such noise on individuals, complementing existing EU legislation which sets standards for noise emissions from specific sources. The END requires:
the determination of exposure to environmental noise, through noise mapping;
provision of information on environmental noise and its effects on the public;
adoption of action plans, based upon noise mapping results, which should be designed to manage noise issues and effects, including noise reduction if necessary;
preservation by the member states of environmental noise quality where it is good."

The Interactive Maps can be found at:

http://noisemapping.defra.gov.uk/wps/portal/noise

Related News Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7403280.stm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1967803/Noise-pollution-map-warns-of-health-risks.html

Blog

http://bridgetfox.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/noise-mapping/

Defra UK Airport Noise Maps

Defra UK Airport Noise Maps Available


"In 1996 the European Commission issued a Green Paper in which it was stated that an estimated 20% of the EU citizens were exposed to noise levels that scientists and health experts considered to be unacceptable, at which most people become annoyed, sleep is disturbed and health may be at risk."


All available from
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/noise/ambient.htm#aviation
(1 to 4mb PDF's with Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Rasters included, Arcview 3.2 was use - north arrow and scale bar giveaway there.)

Airports included:
Birmingham International Airport
Blackpool Squire’s Gate Airport
Bournemouth Airport
Bristol Lulsgate Airport
Coventry Airport
Leeds Bradford Airport
Liverpool John Lennon Airport
London City Airport
London Gatwick Airport
London Heathrow Airport
London Luton Airport
London Stansted Airport
Manchester International Airport
Newcastle International Airport
Nottingham East Midlands Airport
Shoreham Airport
Southampton Eastleigh Airport
Southend Airport

Glossary to help understand the maps

Decibel (dB)
The decibel (dB) is a logarithmic unit of measurement that expresses the magnitude of a physical quantity relative to a specified or implied reference level. Its logarithmic nature allows very large or very small ratios to be represented by a convenient number. Being a ratio, it is a dimensionless unit. Decibels are used for a wide variety of measurements including acoustics, and for audible sound A-weighted decibels (dBA) are commonly used.

dB(A)
A unit of sound pressure level, adjusted in accordance with the A weighting scale, which takes into account the increased sensitivity of the human ear at some frequencies

LAeq,T
The notional A-weighted equivalent continuous sound level which, if it occurred over the same time period, would give the same noise level as the actual varying sound level. The T denotes the time period over which the average is taken, for example LAeq,8h is the equivalent continuous noise level over a 8 hour period.

Lday
The A-weighted average sound level over the 12 hour day period of 0700 – 1900 hours.

Levening
The A-weighted average sound level over the 4 hour evening period of 1900 – 2300 hours.

Lnight
The A-weighted average sound level over the 8 hour night period of 2300 – 0700 hours.

Lden
The day, evening, night level, Lden is a logarithmic composite of the Lday, Levening, and Lnight levels but with 5 dB(A) being added to the Levening value and 10 dB(A) being added to the Lnight value

LAeq,16h
The A-weighted average sound level over the 16 hour period of 0700 - 2300

Noise Bands
Areas with similar noise exposure in 5 dB(A) ranges according to the key shown with the maps

Noise Contours
Lines showing the locations with the same noise exposure according to the key shown with the maps.

National Intrusion Map England

National Intrusion Map for England


Source: CPRE
The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has releases New Maps depicting the Intrusion of many sources (traffic, rail, air, dense population, power lines etc) that lead us to a more intrusive way of life.

• Within 3km

- of very high disturbance roads such as most major motorways and A roads (e.g. M25, M1, M6) with over 75000 daily traffic flow
- of the edge of large towns of over 270,000 people (e.g. size of Southampton, Liverpool)
- of power stations;

• Within 2km

- of sections of some motorways (e.g. M6 north of Preston) and many urban A roads with 25,000 to 75,000 daily traffic flow (e.g. A184 in Durham or A24 in West Sussex);
- of the edge of smaller towns of 4,000 to 270,000 people;

• Within 1km

- of many urban A roads (e.g. within London or Birmingham) and some rural A roads with 10,000 to 25,000 daily traffic flow or ;
- of the published noise contour (57 decibels equivalent sound figure) for civil airports;1
Within 0.5km
- of many rural A roads with 5,000 to 10,000 daily traffic flow (e.g. A594 between Ambleside and Keswick in the Lake District or A354 from Salisbury to Dorchester);
- of settlements of 2,500 to 4,000 people;
- of mainline railways;
- of 400KV and 275KV power lines

Source: CPRE

Where are the Maps?
Developing an Intrusion Map of England (PDF)

Intrusion Map Explained (PDF)

Large Map (PDF)

Where are the least intrusive places?

"The largest remaining areas of unspoilt countryside are mostly in the national parks - Dartmoor, Exmoor, the Yorkshire Dales, the North Yorkshire Moors, the Lake District and Northumberland.

Shropshire and the North Pennines are also largely free from noise and eyesores."
Daily Mail