A study on the modified urban soundscape of a city due to introduction of elevated structures

The urban soundscape of cities in a developing country like India are slightly varied by virtue of the fact that the composition of the traffic is heterogeneous accompanied by variance in road geometry and varying density of the buildings on the either side of the road and other community noise sources. Urban planning plays a vital role in organizing a city’s traffic flow. To avoid congestion of traffic streams introduction of flyovers in the traffic flow happens to be a common feature in many urban environments. Through introduction of flyovers an increase or decrease in environmental noise characteristics occurs. In this paper a noise mapping study has been attempted along with field measurements of L10, L50, L90, and Leq to understand the soundscape of the city due to such types of modified topography. It also describes how the local characteristics of the city and changed topography alters the soundscape of the city. The theoretical computation of noise levels has been carried out using the sound plan software. It is observed that a reasonable reduction of Leq occurs in the immediate vicinity of noise sensitive areas of significant buildings such as hospitals and educational campuses.