IMAGINE Project: Urban Measurements of Lden and Lnight and Calculation of the Associated Uncertainties

This article describes the principles of the new measurement method developed within the IMAGINE European project to determine Lden and Lnight, as defined by the European Noise Directive 2002/49/EC, by direct measurement of the noise levels. The measurement method was tested in a real and complex urban environment including a major road, a major railway line and an industrial site. A description is given for the calculation of the yearly averaged levels and the uncertainty estimation. Concerning such long term indicators, estimation of uncertainty is a rather complex task, especially if the yearly Lden and Lnight are derived from measurements performed over a short period of the year. The uncertainties concern the microphone position, the source variation, the meteorological variations, the correction for background noise and the sound level meter class 1 uncertainty. The example described here is based on a measurement campaign performed over one year in the city of Pisa (Italy).The aforementioned measurements would be typically applied to support the credibility of noise map calculations towards the citizens and to validate calculations of noise maps in well-defined situations.

PAVIOTTI Marco;  KEPHALOPOULOS Stylianos;  JONASSON Hans; 

2008-02-28

International Commission for Acoustics

JRC37562

http://www.sea-acustica.es/WEB_ICA_07/enter.htm,    http://www.sea-acustica.es/WEB_ICA_07/fchrs/papers/env-08-012.pdf,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC37562,