GEOGRAPHICAL TRANSFERABILITY OF TRAFFIC NOISE PREDICTION MODEL

Abstract

Development of transportation system has produced both the economic and social benefits to mankind. However with this development we are facing a major problem of noise — an unwanted sound. In a rapidly urbanizing country like India, the transportation sector is growing rapidly and the number of vehicles on Indian roads is increasing at a rate of 7% per annum. During the period of 50 years from 1951 to 2001, the number of vehicles increased from3 lacs to 430 lacs, i.e. an increase of almost 143 times. The transportation sectoris one of the major contributors to noise in urban area, accounting for as much as 55% of the total noise on the arterials. Traffic noise affects the daily life of people especially of those residing in roadside buildings. It causes serious health hazards. A number of noise prediction models have been developed over the past 30 yrs that attempted to model the road conditions under study. But as traffic flow characteristics, road characteristics, geometric parameters etc. are different from what are prevailing in those developed countries, these models can not be applied directly in its present form. There is a need to check its transferability in order to make it suitable for predicting traffic noise in Indian cities. In this dissertation, FHWA model is calibrated for Lucknow city. In doing so, the study area of Lucknow has been divided into four zones based on the land use. These zones are residential, commercial, silence, and heavy traffic zone. Traffic noise is measured directly using noise meter at various locations grouped under these zones. It is compared with the noise level predicted using FHWA model in terms of the percentage difference and absolute difference. Regressing analysis is then performed to get a modeled equation. The validity of model developed is checked through statistical analysis. In the present study case of Lucknow, the absolute difference between the observed and predicted noise level comes in the range of 0.08-6.14dB (A) and the percentage difference is in the range of 09-5.09. The value of regression correlation obtained is 0.7883. T-test justified the model developed for Lucknow city as the calculated value oft is less than the critical value for a given confidence interval.