Traffic noise and vibration in urban environments - monitoring, prediction, and control

Expansion of the urban transportation networks, increase in traffic density, and increase in speed are inevitable as the requirement to improve people’s mobility within cities continues to rise amid growing environmental concerns and the given climate emergency. Despite the mitigation efforts, traffic is still a major driver for excessive noise levels and vibrations continuously experienced in urban environments. These emissions can cause discomfort, serious illnesses, and even premature deaths of city dwellers, as well as damage to infrastructure and buildings. Studies of noise and vibrations caused by traffic are often considered as one discipline because both are analyzed as wave phenomena, i.e., as waves propagating through the air or the ground. Integrating these studies with the perception and wellbeing-driven urban soundscape approach is a step towards managing this emerging environmental issue holistically and implementing it firmly within Sustainable Development Goals.

Although the Environmental Noise Directive is in force since 2002, traffic noise pollution remains one of the major environmental problems affecting European citizens in urban areas. Further measures are required, not only to reduce traffic noise pollution but also to protect quiet areas, whose distribution is strongly related to population density and the location of transport infrastructure. At the same time, as cities encourage the use of public rail transportation systems to reduce air pollution and promote green mobility, vibrations generated due the wheel-rail interaction are becoming prevalent. Because of that, the exploration of traffic noise and vibration abatement opportunities (based on the prediction and/or monitoring results) should be an integral part of transportation infrastructure planning, design, (re)construction, and maintenance. During these processes, the entire urban environment, with a multitude of noise and vibration sources and their combinations, and its impact on human perception and physiology needs to be evaluated, as well as the impact of the traditional traffic noise and vibration control measures on it.

This topic is aligned with the growing need for the implementation of the holistic concept in traffic noise and vibration policies and aims at developing a comprehensive understanding of the topic through research articles and case studies.
Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Factors mediating perception of traffic noise and vibrations
• Physiological and psychological impacts of traffic noise and vibrations
• Large scale traffic noise and/or vibration surveys looking at health effects
• Open data for traffic noise monitoring, control and prediction
• Challenges in sound localisation for autonomous vehicles
• Road traffic noise modelling, measurements and tests
• Impact of various transport modes and/or infrastructure condition on traffic noise and vibration
• Traffic vibration effects on historical structures
• Evaluating impact of noise and vibration mitigation strategies
• Challenges for active noise control approaches
• Noise and vibration mitigation challenges in narrow traffic corridors and/or in city centers
• Sustainable Development Goals and noise mitigation
• Noise mapping and/or the protection of quiet areas
• Traffic management related to the reduction of traffic noise and vibration