DYNAMAP: a new approach to real-time noise mapping

The usual approach to real-time noise mapping consists in implementing a localized noise monitoring network that continuously collects noise data and transmits them to a data center where a noise model software runs. The role of the noise model software is to re-scale some pre-computed partial noise maps according to the measured data and to sum the new re-scaled partial maps together, in order to obtain the whole area noise map to be published and continuously updated on a web site. At the moment the application of real-time noise map systems is limited to small areas because of the high cost of noise monitoring stations and long time needed to run and manage the system. A new approach to real-time noise mapping will be developed in DYNAMAP (DYNamic Acoustic MAPping), a co-founded project in the framework of LIFE 2013 program. The main features of this project are to define a statistically-based method to optimize the choice and the number of monitoring sites, and to automate the noise mapping process using the information retrieved from a low cost monitoring network. Preliminary results and a case study, referring to a small sample of roads of the city of Milan, will be presented