Sensitivity Map - A Case Study in Sao Paulo, Brazil

In several countries around the world, especially in Europe, urban noise management is consolidated specially after European Directive 2002/49 / EC entered into force, requiring cities with population above 250,000 inhabitants to make noise maps and action plans. In Brazil there is no national legislation regarding the management of environmental noise. All initiatives in this sense came from municipalities. In the city of São Paulo, Brazil, in July 2016, the Law 16,499 was approved, which commits the city's forthcoming administrations to set schedules, goals and deadlines for a wide comprehensive study about the acoustic environment of the city. In addition to the noise maps, it is also necessary to develop acoustic sensitivity maps. These maps basically define zones in urban areas, considering its characteristics such as population density, land use and occupation, stablishing a specific limit of noise level per zone. Therefore, conflict maps are created by overlapping noise maps and sensitivity maps, providing an effective tool for management and control of noise pollution in cities. This study aims to present a proposal for a noise sensitivity map in a pilot area in São Paulo, applying and validating a previous methodology developed by the autonomous community administration of Catalonia, Spain.