Midlands Branch reports

摘要

In June the Midlands Branch met at Jacobs in Coventry where Peter Hepworth presented Managing the production of the world's largest noise map. The noise map in question was that produced to fulfil England's obligations for the second round of the EU's Environmental Noise Directive. The results will also be used to enable the social and health costs of road and rail noise to be determined. Peter explained the project brief and the tendering process and then went on to describe how Hepworth Acoustics and their partners delivered the project to the demanding seven month timescale. For the project they had collaborated with their long-time partners Acustica (UK), DARH2 (Croatia) and Stapelfeldt (Germany). The input data had been provided (by Extrium) and from this the noise calculations were performed on more than 26,000 km of major roads, 5,000 km of major railways and 65 agglomerations (urban areas with a population of at least 100,000) to produce an integrated noise map. The successful completion of the project also demonstrated that it is possible to manage and deliver such a project in a short timescale even when contributors are located in several countries. Many thanks go to Peter for his excellent talk and to Jacobs for hosting the meeting.