The Use of Pilot Areas as a Base for Large-Scale Strategic Noise Mapping: Technical Aspects and Application of Software Based Strategies

Nowadays, noise prediction software is the main tool for the calculation of situations oriented to predict noise in open environments. The results of such calculations support further decisions and action plans against noise in countries with a consistent legal noise control framework. Unfortunately, this approach needs to be further developed before being applied in countries with a growing economy and especially where very large cities need to be assessed. Even in the case a legal framework has been developed, there are many important technical and operational decisions to be made before a simulation tool is applied to city noise mapping over large areas. Aspects like how the available data shall be imported and simplified, the best configuration of calculations to be applied in order to get reliable results faster, or how a strategic noise map could be made available to the public shall be decided by using smaller sample areas or pilot noise maps before their application to entire noise projects within the country. This contribution presents some examples applied to the pilot noise map of São Paulo, developed by the Associaçã0 Brasileira para a Qualidade Acustica (ProAcustica).