RESUMEN
In many countries such as Chile, there is scarce official information for generating accurate noise maps. Therefore, specific simplification methods are becoming a real need for the acoustic community in developing countries. Thus, the main purpose of this work was to evaluate and apply simplified methods to generate a cost-effective traffic noise map of a small city of Chile. The experimental design involved the simplification of the cartographic information on buildings by clustering the households within a block, and the classification of the vehicular traffic flows into categories to generate an inexpensive noise map. The streets have been classified according to the official road classification of the country. Segregation of vehicles from light, heavy and motorbikes is made to account for traffic flow. In addition, a number of road traffic noise models were compared with noise measurements and consequently the road traffic model RLS-90 was chosen to generate the noise map of the city using the Computer Aided Noise Abatement (CadnaA) software. It was observed a direct dependence between noise levels and traffic flow versus each category of street used. The methodology developed in this study appears to be convenient in developing countries to obtain accurate approximations to develop inexpensive traffic noise maps.
RESUMEN
A noise map is a cartographic representation of the noise level distribution in a determined area and period of time. This article presents the most important aspects of the noise mapping project across Santiago, a city of nearly six million inhabitants. The study was performed employing limited information and a low-cost, vehicular traffic noise predictive model. The methodology applied to the Chilean experience can also be used to create noise maps for major cities. An evaluation of noise prediction models, considering simplifications of the modeling environment (buildings) and for the vehicular traffic flow rates attributed to the streets under study, was made. The noise levels were modeled according to recommended exposure values for the above area. The results revealed that the noise levels for the city of Santiago were high in a relevant percentage of the surface.