A Study on the Status and Prediction of Arterial Road Noise in Seoul, Korea

Road traffic noise causes considerable disturbance and annoyance in exposed inhabitants. Particularly, arterial road noise is a significant environmental problem in many urban areas in which higher traffic volume and higher car speed occur. Arterial road noise became the target of this investigation in Seoul, South Korea. Noise levels were measured at four points that were based on distance from roadside at the same measurement site and under the conditions as reported by the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) in 1999. The average noise levels () of the arterial road was 80.3 dBA at 5 m, 77.4 dBA at 10 m, 73.7 dBA at 20 m, 70.9 dBA at 30 m. A comparison between 1999 and 2008's measurement values has shown that in 2008 noise level is up by about 1.5 dBA, traffic volume has increased by about 15.7%, while car speed has decrease by about 8%. The relationship between 2008' measured values and predicted values using the NIER Equation is low under 10 m from the roadside. The influence range of arterial noise is calculated at 26 m for road noise limits in daytime. In relation to the comparison between traffic volume and noise level, the equivalence in traffic volume (Light car+10xHeavy car) is higher than other variables.