Environmental (traffic) noise mapping in Bristol

Bristol City Council has published a noise map of the city that shows the levels of ambient or environmental noise in neighbourhoods. The noise sources mapped are road and rail traffic. The work has been done as part of the SILENCE project, an EU funded project to assess methods  of reducing transport noise in urban areas.

The maps are produced using a computer model of the topography, buildings and noise sources in the city. The noise emission levels are assigned to roads based on a combination of factors such as traffic speed, composition and road surface type. The model calculates the propagation of the emitted noise in the environment. The effect of reflection from topography and buildings is taken into account. An assessment of the population exposed to noise levels above an action level can also be made, as population is estimated in each building. The computer package used in Bristol is called CADNA-A. The maps are now available from the links below.

The noise maps are expressed in terms of L_den. This is the EU noise index and is a composite measure of noise which reflects the average noise over a 24 hour period. A weighting is applied for evening and night time noise to reflect extra disturbance during these periods.

DEFRA has also published noise maps for all "agglomerations" (cities over 250,000 population) in the UK under the requirements of the EU Environmental Noise Directive (END). These are available online from the link below. The noise map produced by Bristol City Council is entirely independent of this work.

The noise maps for Bristol are available from the links below in a variety of formats.

Interactive noise map viewer

Noise maps as PDF files

Noise map in Google Maps

Noise map in Google Earth - you will need to download and install Google Earth

DEFRA's noise maps