Priority index on road sections for noise action plan (Índice para determinación de la prioridad de actuación en los tramos de carretera de un plan de acción contra el ruido)

Abstract

It is well known that the road traffic noise is one of the most important contributors to the environmental impact generated by roads. There no exists hitherto any regulated guidance or procedure that establishes how to undertake a well-founded prioritization among the diverse road sections which are included in the corresponding Action Plans against noise according to the Environmental Noise Directive (2002/49/EC). In this work, the so-called “priority road stretch index” (PRSI) is developed. This index is based on a number of variables (called “priority road stretch variables”, PRSV), which are weighted according to their influence on the road traffic noise problem. This developed index allows sorting out by priority action the road sections included in the Noise Action Plans. Also, in order to test the validity of the proposed methodology, the “priority road stretch index” is applied to the Action Plan against Noise 2008-2012 of the road network of the regional government of Andalusia in the province of Almería