Evaluation and Modeling of Traffic Noise in Berhampur City, India
Anil Kumar Sahu, Priyabrata Pradhan, Santanu Kumar Nayak, Madhusmita Pradhan, Chitta Ranjan Mohanty
Abstract
Traffic noise in urban areas is increasing day by day, owing to addition in the number of vehicles on road in developing and developed countries. The increase of noise level reduces the wellbeing of the exposed people. Exposure to high noise results in development of ill health including annoyance, high blood pressure, headache and other physiological and psychological problems. Noise not only affects the human life but also affects animals and birds in the ecosystem. In this experimental study, the evaluation of traffic noise in Berhampur city has been done. Eleven important locations covering the whole city were considered for traffic noise evaluation. Other than the evaluation of traffic noise, the well-known traffic noise prediction models have been tested here. It has been found that, in this situation, such established models do not function well and have a low coefficient of correlation value. A new befitting model has been formulated using multiple regression analysis to predict the traffic noise level and later on, it is also tested as well as validated at different locations.