Local Noise Mapping Project

03 June 2008, 4:07pm

London communities are tackling noise pollution with help from a collaborative project, “Mapping Change for Sustainable Communities,” being run by University College London and London 21 Sustainability network, under the supervision of Dr. Muki Haklay, with help from the artist Christian Nold and funded by the UCL-led UrbanBuzz programme. London Sustainability Exchange, under the Environmental Justice programme provided the second pilot area.
Mapping Change for Sustainable Communities (MCSC) is working with communities in East London and the Thames Gateway; areas facing a considerable amount of change over the coming years. MCSC is using mapping to make getting involved a little easier and a lot more effective. Community engagement involves a series of workshops to highlight facilities, local organisations and events that are captured and form part of an interactive local map that will serve as a community resource. Various local issues and concerns are identified and different methods used to tackle these.
The communities have raised the issue of noise pollution, but do not have the technical equipment or expertise needed to gather their own evidence on the levels of noise they are subjected to. With help from the project, which designed a survey method, supplied local residents with noise meters, and trained them in how to use these devices. They went on to make over 1500 measurements at all times of day and night and developed their own ‘noise maps’.
In response to the European Environmental Noise Directive 2002/49/EC, England and Scotland have published online strategic noise maps that deal with noise from road, rail, air traffic, and from industry separately, but not the cumulative effect of these, which is what communities are exposed to. One of the objectives of the Directive is to determine the noise exposure of the population. The method used by the communities to record levels of ambient noise may provide a more accurate representation of ‘life on the ground’ to the modelled projections used to create these published noise maps.

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