A Review of Traffic Noise Standards and Noise Models

Abstract

Traffic noise is one of the most irritating pollutions which affect human health in various forms, be it permanent hearing loss, shifting of hearing threshold, irritation/psychological problem, blood pressure, sleeping disorder, premature child birth, etc. The noise generated in the base year of any project may not be harmful, but it may be harmful by horizon year. Under this condition, noise mitigation measures need to be inbuilt in the project itself. In order to suggest right noise mitigation measure for future, noise prediction should be accurate as far as possible. Therefore, an attempt has been made in this paper to review most of the noise prediction models in the world. The paper also presents some basics of noise and comparison of noise standards in various countries including India.