PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Lyon, France’s second largest city, is faced with serious problems due to the high levels of noise in the environment. The absence of a planning tool makes it difficult to assess the likely impact of some building work, for example, or the best design to minimise the impact of the roads on housing. Lyon has an environmental charter that foresees the creation of a computerised tool to forecast the noise level in the environment ands its impact on the communities.
OBJECTIVES
The aim of the project is to create an observatory for city noise environment composed of: - a technical centre dedicated to the observation of noise environment in Grand Lyon; - the installation of fixed acoustic sensors and a mobile laboratory dedicated to on-site data acquisitions; - the development of an operational software tool aimed at the output of a global indicator for describing noise levels in the environment related to each specific urban zone. This is to be achieved through the creation of an Observatory for city noise environment, equipped with the appropriate technical tools to carry out an active survey of the evolution of noise in Lyon. This will be conducted with an operational software tool designed for politicians and heads of technical services concerned with any kind of noise disturbance. This software tool will fulfil 3 main objectives, namely: - provide efficient help to decision-makers to propel a concrete policy for noise management in the city, taking into account the particularities of each urban zone; - assist in the decision-making process for rapid resolution of crises (complaints, petitions...); - anticipate any kind of economical or social depreciation of the different urban zones in Grand Lyon, which could result from the degradation of levels of noise in its environment.
RESULTS
The 3 actions foreseen were undertaken successfully: - implementation of a noise measurement system, composed by a mobile laboratory system dedicated to short duration data on-site acquisitions based on physical acoustics criteria, and fixed acoustical sensors located at strategic points in le Grand Lyon. - creation of a technical centre equipped with one technician specialised in acoustics, who is in charge of the exploitation of the centre's technical means. - development and implementation of a predictive tool aimed at the output of a global indicator for describing the noise environment related to each specific urban zone. Such an indicator integrates both objective (physical acoustics) and subjective (psychoacoustics) dimensions of a noise reality. These three actions led to the implementation of the Observatory of the urban noise environment. The software is based on the GIS Mapinfo, and allows a visual illustration of the noise environment. It also permits to undertake simulation so as to assess the impact of decision-making (traffic management, building sites, etc.). It is also serves as a data base where different types of data can be stored, such as potential noise sources, complaints about noise, data retrieved by the Acoucite Observatory, etc. As a prototype software tool, DIAPASON provides global indicators for describing the noise environment related to each specific urban zone. Its main innovation consists in a cross analysis capability between physical parameters (noise levels measured and/or computed over different day periods) and subjective parameters (those related to the induced annoyance potential of noise). Both types of outputs are made available in a user-friendly form through the software link to a geographic information system (GIS). DIAPASON provides explicit maps of noise levels and annoyance potential in a large number of situations involving combination between different noise sources (traffic, railway, industries,…), day periods and urban zones. The technical success of the project is well established, although it lacked a “validation” phase in which it should have been presented to the elected people and technicians from other areas, as well as to the general public. This means that the utilisation of this tool in the different policies implemented by the Grand Lyon and its use for informing the population is not as intense as originally planned. Another point of particular interest with this project is the study undertaken of academic sources and other references on urban noise, with a view to defining when a noise becomes a nuisance (this has an important subjective dimension). Building on its success, Acoucite received in 2002 a new LIFE grant for a project called Gipsynoise, undertaken in partnership with the towns of Barcelona, Huelva, Rome, Porto, Prague and Szeged. This new project aims at developing an efficient GIS tool oriented to meeting the objectives of the European Directive on the Assessment and Management of Environmental Noise.
