The public interest in central living in today’s cities has led to an increasing effect of traffic noise pollution, and today 20% of the inhabitants in Sweden suffer from noise a level that exceeds the limits. At the same time the traffic keeps increasing, and recent researches shows that traffic noise pollution and several of today’s most common health issues are connected, for example, reduction of performance, sleeping issues and cardiovascular diseases. For this cause rules, guidelines and environmental goals has been developed, as well as software’s which calculates the levels of pollution, all this to investigate and improve the environment. The guidelines say that the average sound pressure level shouldn’t exceed 55 dBA over 24 hours of the façade, and the maximum level shouldn’t exceed 70 dBA. Today’s issue is that the guidelines isn’t legally binding and therefore they don’t have to be fully achieved which can led to confusion and unfair interpretations in the matter of a building can or cannot be built according to the limits of traffic noise pollution.   The intensions of this report are to improve the urban environment regarding traffic noise pollution and to increase the understanding and knowledge how this issue affects urban areas. The report will also investigate and compare two different calculation methods for traffic noise pollution, the Nordic propagation method and the Nord 2000.   On this basis a literature survey has been done regarding the noise pollution issues in our cities with its rules, guidelines, objective goals, measures and the two different calculation methods. Investigations of different shapes of a building has been done in combination with the software for calculation of road traffic noise Soundplan, and a case study of a site which is located in the centre of Jönköping. The workflow has been reversed from the “normal”, were the building were designed after the limits of the noise levels were investigated. This resulted in a residential proposal which is optimized from a traffic noise point of view, and uses its own body as a shield. The condoles are directed away from the source of noise and the parking space are placed towards the roads. The final result has been analysed with both of the calculation methods, were a slightly differentiation between the methods can be seen. This is causes by the way the calculation methods deal with information and the differentiation in the calculation methods.   The conclusions from this report are that the traffic noise pollution is one of our major health issues which still are increasing. The main problem in this is that there’s several unmeasurable parameters which influences the way an individual experiences the sound environment, which contributes to the difficulty to establish a proper regulations and standards. Regarding the calculation methods there is issues to use Nord 2000, because the method requires large amounts of information which can be difficult to access. At the same time the Nordic propagation method can show incorrectly results because it hasn’t the same ability to adapt to the specific conditions at each location.

This degree project illustrates today's noise problems caused by high-speed highways.  The area that has been studied is Kopparlunden along the E18, in Västerås which reflects a long and unique industrial history from the late 1800's. In the current situation  the municipality of Västerås is doing a transformation of the existing industry into a modern residential area with the  new homes, workplaces and services. The purpose of the work is to identify noise and study traffic-related noise problems in this area, partly to check the result of noise values ​​against the requirements, and to propose noise reduction measures. This work is based on own noise measurements and calculations as well as on the study of a couple of relevant reference objects. The result of own noise  measurement and calculations at all four points was about 60 – 63 dBA equivalent on two meter high over ground and about 61 – 67 dBA at five meters high over ground. This means that the measured values exceed the guideline values of approximately 8 dBA at two meters height and 12 dBA at 5 meters height according to BBR. For satisfactory sound levels to be obtained in Kopparlunden, several solutions need to be implemented such as an evacuation corridor between facades and apartments, increased distances between buildings and the noise source, noise screen and well proper placement and design of buildings. / Samhällsbyggnadsteknik

<p>This report is written on commission by WSP Acoustics. The report studies the outdoor sound levels on school yards in Stockholm. The questions given by the company to be answered was what are the actual sound levels at diffrent school yards with low traffic noise and how can you construct a facade element that reduces the sound level from the outside and meet the indoor requirements. Mesurements for four hours was done at eight schools set north and south of the city centre. The measurement period included one school break and one lunch break. The results of the measurements were that the equivalent and maximum sound level had small variations between the schools with some exceptions.The equivalent sound level was Leq 58-62 dB(A) and this shows a small variation. The school with the highest equivalent sound level of 67 dB was Maria skolan. This high level can be explained by more children on the school yard together at the same time etc. The maximum sound level was 85-89 dB(A), this if the level for Sofia skolan 82 dB was ignored. The level 85-89 dB(A) also shows a small variation. Calculations of the sound reduction index (R'w) for facade elements were also carried out for all the schools. The resulting sound reduction index for the whole facade was 34-41 dB. After assuming a 200 mm thick concrete facade for Sjöstadsskolan another calculation of building elements gives that the window have to reduce R'w 32 dB to meet the indoor requirements. In the future WSP Acoustics will use this report to choose building elements such as windows when building or rebuilding schools. It can also be used if any of the eight schools in this report needs a window changed to improve the acoustics.</p>

This report is written on commission by WSP Acoustics. The report studies the outdoor sound levels on school yards in Stockholm. The questions given by the company to be answered was what are the actual sound levels at diffrent school yards with low traffic noise and how can you construct a facade element that reduces the sound level from the outside and meet the indoor requirements. Mesurements for four hours was done at eight schools set north and south of the city centre. The measurement period included one school break and one lunch break. The results of the measurements were that the equivalent and maximum sound level had small variations between the schools with some exceptions.The equivalent sound level was Leq 58-62 dB(A) and this shows a small variation. The school with the highest equivalent sound level of 67 dB was Maria skolan. This high level can be explained by more children on the school yard together at the same time etc. The maximum sound level was 85-89 dB(A), this if the level for Sofia skolan 82 dB was ignored. The level 85-89 dB(A) also shows a small variation. Calculations of the sound reduction index (R'w) for facade elements were also carried out for all the schools. The resulting sound reduction index for the whole facade was 34-41 dB. After assuming a 200 mm thick concrete facade for Sjöstadsskolan another calculation of building elements gives that the window have to reduce R'w 32 dB to meet the indoor requirements. In the future WSP Acoustics will use this report to choose building elements such as windows when building or rebuilding schools. It can also be used if any of the eight schools in this report needs a window changed to improve the acoustics.

Purpose: This degree project has investigated the problems Södra Källtorp has with noise due to the nearby highway E18. The purpose of this work is to investigate whether Södra Källtorp meets the guideline values and also whether the implemented noise protection measures in the neighbourhood have caused a change regarding the noise level. Method: The method for carrying out this degree project consisted of a literature study and a case study. The case study was carried out through own measurements and calculations. Four measuring points were chosen. The first two are located in Södra Källtorp and are covered by the noise protection, while the last two are not covered by any noise protection and are located in Råby. Based on the measurement results, the daily equivalent sound level was calculated based on the annual average daily traffic for each measurement point. In addition, interviews were held in order to get a picture of the noise experience among the residents in the neighbourhood. Results: According to the measurement results, the daily equivalent sound level was 55 dBA and the daily maximum sound level 61 dBA for measuring point M1. For measuring point M2, the daily equivalent sound level was 46 dBA while the daily maximum sound level was 53 dBA. Measuring point U1 had a higher noise level than measuring point M1 and measuring point U2 had a higher noise level than measuring point M2. Conclusions: Conclusions that can be drawn are that the noise protection measures have made a change regarding the noise level in Södra Källtorp and that the noise levels in Södra Källtorp do not exceed the guideline values. However, most noise levels that occur in the neighbourhood are not approved according to WHO. More noise protection measures may need to be taken in the future in order to meet WHO’s recommendations.