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Noise mapping starts in London

Launched in GLA's City Hall yesterday, a noise research project will provide an important baseline for the Government's development of a strategy to tackle ambient noise - background noise from transport and industry - and will assist local authority policy-making for planning, transport and environmental health.

As the first step, Defra will work in partnership with the Greater London Authority (GLA) and 33 London borough authorities to map road traffic noise in Greater London. It will be the most comprehensive survey of traffic noise ever undertaken in the capital.

Urban Quality of Life Minister Alun Michael said:

"Unwanted sound seems to have become an ever present feature of modern life, which is almost impossible to avoid. It is insidious and insistent - penetrating our waking hours and our sleep; disrupting our concentration and our conversation, and exacerbating inequalities by affecting particularly the poor and the less mobile.”

"But this does not mean that people are prepared to accept it or should be expected to accept it - noise is a source of annoyance and frustration to very many people.”

"While current evidence suggests that noise is not, generally, a life and death issue, it has a major impact on people's quality of life and can cause misery and anxiety."

The Sound Immission Contour Mapping (SICM) system will be used to map Greater London. SICM produces computer models based on traffic volumes at specific points during a given time period. These can be used to identify noise 'hot spots' and to assess the likely impact of measures to reduce noise, such as traffic management schemes or the laying of low-noise road surfaces. The project is expected to take a year.

Further projects are planned in London to cover other sources of transport and industrial noise. An announcement about extending the mapping project to other parts of England will be made early next year. A ten-month pilot project was completed in Birmingham in 1999.

There have been several less comprehensive noise surveys in the UK which have used noise measurement techniques, such as taking decibel readings from noise meters at a range of locations. This type of noise measurement is not suitable for detailed analysis of noise levels across a large area, such as the mapping project launched today.