32,780 research outputs found
Comparison of noise indicators in an urban context
Inter-Noise 2016, 45th International Congress and Exposition of Noise Control Engineering, HAMBOURG, ALLEMAGNE, 21-/08/2016 - 24/08/2016Noise is a major environmental issue, which gave birth in the last decades to the development of many engineering methods dedicated to both its estimation and mitigation. The specificity of the noise pollution problem lies in the complexity of human hearing and subjective assessment, and in the high spatiotemporal variation and rich spectral content of the noise generated by a wide variety of sources in urban context. Indicators that encompass all these dimensions are required for the description of sound environments and for the evaluation of noise mitigation strategies. This paper compares usual and more specific indicators, dedicated to environmental noise analyses, by means of a literature review. The comparison is based on the three following criteria: i) the ability of indicators to describe and physically categorize the urban sound environments, ii) the relevance of indicators for describing the perceptive appreciations of urban sound environments, iii) the ability of indicators to be estimated through classical or more advanced traffic noise estimation models. A discussion compares the pro and cons of the selected indicators in an operational scop
Modelling policies for urban sustainability
The objective of the EU research project PROPOLIS (Planning and Research of Policies for Land Use and Transport for Increasing Urban Sustainability) is to assess urban strategies and to demonstrate their long-term effect in European cities. To reach this goal, a comprehensive framework of methodologies including integrated land use, transport and environmental modelling as well as indicator, evaluation and presentation systems have been developed. Sustainable development is viewed as comprising the environmental, socio-cultural and economic dimension. About thirty key indicators have been defined to measure the three dimensions of sustainability, such as air pollution, consumption of natural resources, quality of open space, population exposure to air pollution and noise, equity and opportunities and economic benefits from transport and land use. Indicator values are derived from state-of-the-art urban land use and transport models. A number of additional modules, including a justice evaluation module, an economic evaluation module and a GIS-based raster module, have been developed and integrated to provide further indicator values. Both multicriteria and cost-benefit analysis methods are used to consistently evaluate the impact of the policies. The environmental and social dimensions of sustainability are measured using multicriteria analysis for the evaluation of the indicators, whereas cost-benefit analysis is used for the economic dimension. The modelling and evaluation system is currently being implemented in seven European urban agglomerations: Bilbao (Spain), Brussels (Belgium), Dortmund (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Inverness (Scotland), Naples (Italy) and Vicenza (Italy). A large number of policies will be tested with the modelling and evaluation system in the seven urban regions. Policies to be investigated are land use policies, transport infrastructure policies, transport regulation and pricing policies and combinations of these. Besides a common policy set for all seven urban regions, city-specific local policies will be assessed as well. The first part of the paper will introduce the methodology and the modelling system developed. The second part will present first results of the policy testing and evaluation. The paper will conclude with initial conclusions on successful strategies to enhance the long-term sustainability of urban regions.
A Quiet Area Accessibility Metric for the Southampton Urban Agglomeration
This study proposes a new metric that characterises accessibility to âquiet areasâ, as defined
by the Environmental Noise Directive (END), in urban agglomerations by using Geographical
Information System software in conjunction with END noise mapping results. The metric
methodology is shown and it is used to determine lack of access to quiet spaces in social disadvantaged areas in the city of Southampton, United Kingdom. The results can help urban planners to identify districts that need better provision of tranquil spaces and to enforce measures to protect existing quiet areas. The study concludes with a description of the implementation of the quiet area accessibility metric in open source internet urban mapping
tools
The influence of vegetation and shape-related features in making parks more noise resistant
The aim of this paper is to assess the effect of vegetation-related parameters and shape-related features on noise levels in park areas. For the current research, eight case study parks of various sizes were identified in Antwerp and noise levels were measured inside and around them. The measurements were conducted during multiple days using portable custom-made sound recording devices. The analysis was performed by correlating the input with the output parameters. Input data include green space and shape metrics, while output parameters consist of various noise indices (L10, L50, L90, LAeq, LCeq-LAeq) averaged for the entire parks. In a more focused scale the same analysis was attempted referring to measurement points inside the parks.Correlations in this case were identified only between green space features and L90. The entire analysis denotes that green space features can be an important factor in noise reduction within the parks,independently of the effects from the surrounding environment
Social Deprivation and Accessibility to Quiet Areas in Southampton
It has been suggested that access to so-called âQuiet Areasâ could be beneficial to subjects with health problems. A number of studies have also indicated a correlation between social deprivation and exposure to noisy environments. The European Noise Directive (END) provides a framework for identifying Quiet Areas in urban agglomerations. This study proposes a new indicator that characterises accessibility to quiet spaces, using Geographical Information System software in conjunction with END noise mapping results. This metric is applied to determine correlations between social deprivation and access to quiet areas in the city of Southampton
ASSESSMENT OF THE SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT LEVEL THROUGH THE USE OF INDICATORS OF SUSTAINABILITY
In this paper the authors analized the evolution of four major cities of Romania between 2006-2008, with the goal to compare and rank them in terms sustainable development. To meet this goal, we have choosed indicators of sustainability at urban level, grouped in four categories (economic, social, environmental and natural resources). For each city was calculated an overall score. The comparation of these scores could be used to diferentiate the cities in terms of sustainability in each year and the evolution during a period of three years, and provides important informations about the measures that can be applied for future improvement.sustainable development, indicators, monitoring, city, comparison, ranking.
Measuring the Sustainability of Cities: A Survey-Based Analysis of the Use of Local Indicators
We analyze 17 studies of the use of sustainable development indicators (SDI) in an urban setting. The analysis reveals a lack of consensus not only on the conceptual framework and the approach favored, but also on the selection and optimal number of indicators. First, by performing different classifications and categorizations of SDI we identify problems inherent in territorial practices that use SDI. Second, we argue that the lack of consensus in several steps of the creation of SDI stems notably from the ambiguity in the definitions of sustainable development, objectives for the use of such indicators, the selection method and the accessibility of qualitative and quantitative data. Third, we propose a selection strategy for SDI through which we demonstrate the need to adopt a parsimonious list of SDI covering the sustainable development components and their constituent categories as broadly as possible while minimizing the number of indicators retained. Nous analysons 17 Ă©tudes traitant de lâutilisation dâindicateurs de dĂ©veloppement durable (IDD) en milieu urbain pour diffĂ©rents pays, provinces ou Ă©tats occidentaux. 188 IDD diffĂ©rents sont recensĂ©s dans ces Ă©tudes dont 135 (72 %) ne sont utilisĂ©s quâune ou deux fois. Lâanalyse de ces Ă©tudes rĂ©vĂšle ainsi un faible consensus non seulement au niveau du cadre conceptuel ou de lâapproche prĂ©conisĂ©e, mais aussi en ce qui concerne la sĂ©lection et le nombre dâindicateurs optimal. PremiĂšrement, diffĂ©rents classements et catĂ©gorisations des IDD recensĂ©s nous permettent dâobserver et dâidentifier les problĂšmes inhĂ©rents aux pratiques territoriales ayant recours aux IDD. DeuxiĂšmement, nous argumentons que lâabsence de consensus Ă plusieurs Ă©tapes de la crĂ©ation des IDD Ă©mergent entre autres de lâambiguĂŻtĂ© occasionnĂ©e par la dĂ©finition du dĂ©veloppement durable, des objectifs visĂ©es par lâutilisation de tels indicateurs, de la mĂ©thode de sĂ©lection prĂ©conisĂ©e et de lâaccessibilitĂ© des donnĂ©es qualitatives et quantitatives en cette matiĂšre. TroisiĂšmement, nous proposons une stratĂ©gie de sĂ©lection des IDD (que nous appelons SuBSeleC) oĂč nous dĂ©montrons la nĂ©cessitĂ© dâadoption dâune liste parcimonieuse dâIDD couvrant le plus largement possible les volets du dĂ©veloppement durable et des catĂ©gories qui les composent tout en minimisant le nombre dâindicateurs retenus. Le rĂ©sultat est une liste concise et moins redondante dâindicateurs moins sectoriels et plus intĂ©grateurs ayant lâavantage dâenglober les dimensions intĂ©grĂ©es du dĂ©veloppement durable.Cities, Indicators, Sustainable Development, Environment, Local Governance., Villes, indicateurs, dĂ©veloppement durable, environnement, gouvernance locale.
Quality of Life in Buenos Aires Neighborhoods: Hedonic Price Regressions and the Life Satisfaction Approach
This paper studies quality of life in urban neighborhoods in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area. First, hedonic price regressions for residential prices are augmented with neighborhood characteristics, based on a real estate database with indicators on each propertyâs distance to public facilities and amenities, and on a smaller survey with greater detail. Second, following recent developments in the field of happiness research, the document assesses the importance of different neighborhood characteristics on quality of life by interacting objective and subjective indicators. Indices of quality of life related to local amenities are derived for the different neighborhoods for both the hedonic regression and life satisfaction approaches. The results indicate a strong but not perfect correlation between real estate prices, income levels and neighborhood characteristics, suggesting scope for welfare-improving policy interventions.
A conceptual framework for development of sustainable development indicators
There was a boom in the development of sustainable development indicators (SDIs) after notion of sustainability became popular through Bruntland Commission's report. Since then numerous efforts have been made worldwide in constructing SDIs at global, national and local scales, but in India not a single city has registered any initiative for indicator development . Motivated by this dearth of studies added to the prevailing sustainability risks in million plus cities in India, a research is being undertaken at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development and Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, India, to develop a set of sustainable indicators to study the resource dynamics of the city of Mumbai. As a first step in the process, the ground for development of SDIs is prepared through the development of a framework. A multi-view black box (MVBB) framework has been constructed by eliminating the system component from the extended urban metabolism model (EUMM) and introducing three-dimensional views of economic efficiency (EE), social wellbeing (SW), and ecological acceptability (EA). Domain-based classification was adopted to facilitate a scientifically credible set of indicators. The important domain areas are identified and applying MVBB framework, a model has been developed for each domain.Urban metabolism, Resources transformation, Economic efficiency, Society, Ecology, Monitoring and evaluation, City development, Black box, Productization of process
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