Is it the railway, the airport, the highway or the motorway? On an updated map from the Flemish government you can see for every place in Flanders how much noise pollution there is and where it comes from.
Where should noise barriers be installed in the coming years? And which roads are better equipped with a whisper-quiet surface? To determine this, the Roads and Traffic Agency (AWV) bases itself on a map of Flanders. The new noise map is a collaboration with the Environment Department and shows how much noise pollution each place in Flanders has to deal with. You can zoom in above your own house.
Over the past four years, the AWV has installed 40 km of noise barriers and 16 km of quiet road paving. The map shows the impact for every Flemish road where more than 3 million vehicles pass per year, as well as the impact generated by airports and railways.
The map is based on a computer model, which is refined using nine hundred sensors located on facades throughout Flanders. Sensors are also regularly placed behind new noise barriers, and there are measuring vehicles that drive on the roads.
Noise barriers
The AWV tries to reduce noise pollution by creating grooves in the road surface to reduce rolling resistance. Measurements show that a speed reduction has little or no effect.
“When the speed drops from 120 to 90 km/h, this amounts to ‘only’ approximately 1 decibel less noise, barely perceptible to the human ear,” says the AWV. “That has everything to do with trucks, which produce the most noise and often drive at a speed of 90 km/h. Moreover, peak noises in particular are eliminated when the speed is reduced, while the total noise level decreases less.”
Speed reduction works better on roads with lower speeds and little freight traffic. Noise barriers also block the noise of passenger cars better than the deep hum of trucks.
Is the interactive map not working on this screen? Then view it via this link. (kba)
