Strategic noise mapping and noise action plans of Nicosia and Limassol urban agglomerations and roads - 2nd round under directive 2002/49/EU

Abstract

Cyprus had an obligation, according to national law which is aligned with the Directive 2002/49/EU, to prepare and submit until 30/7/2012 Strategic Noise Maps for urban agglomerations having a population in excess of 100.000 persons and for roads having more than 3.000.000 vehicle passages a year. Furthermore, until 18/7/2013, Cyprus had the obligation to prepare and submit Noise Action Plans concerning the impacts of possible exceedance of the relevant noise limits. The two agglomerations that fulfilled the above criteria were Nicosia and Limassol. The methodology that was followed was to prepare a complete Digital Terrain Model of the two agglomerations and their road axes as well as a detailed survey of all the existing and future sources of environmental noise from road, train and industrial sources (ports). A special provision was taken in the Noise Action Plans in order to include all the future scheduled public works that may affect the environmental noise such as pedestrizations, re-construction of roads, implementation of noise barriers and introduction of electric cars. In order to calibrate the noise prediction software with the available traffic data, 85 24hour acoustical measurements were conducted, 50 in Nicosia and 35 in Limassol with the use of mobile stations. The maps that were prepared concerned the Lden and Lnight indices. In addition, the population exposure to different noise zones per noise source was calculated, as well as the exposure to the combination of all noise sources per agglomeration. This process was made both for the Strategic Noise Maps and the Noise Action Plans. In this way, it was possible to estimate the effectiveness of the proposed Noise Action Plans and the improvement or not of the population exposure. In order to implement the Strategic Noise Maps and the Noise Action Plans, certain Decrees were published.