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08 - Results of the 2018 noise mapping

Results of the 2018 noise mapping

Fewer people are impacted by contours exceeding 55 dB Lden than in previous years. Although the area (km2) within the contours has not decreased, the population within the contours affected by noise has reduced by 3,250 persons in comparison to the 2013-2018 NAP.

The contour maps provided on the Scottish noise mapping website were produced for the Scottish Government by Jacobs Ltd using the following parameters, and in determining the population affected and number of dwellings within the contours:

  • OS Mastermap for the building footprints
  • OS AddressBase data to determine the location of dwellings;
  • a population density per household of 2.07 persons.

In addition, for population and dwellings, Jacobs Ltd have rounded to the nearest 100, and for area they rounded to nearest 1km2, which is in accordance with the EU Noise Directive (2002/49/EU). The Scottish Government will publish the maps and statistics on the Scottish noise mapping website.

LAeq contours
The UK Government says that communities become significantly annoyed by aircraft noise above 57 Leq dBA. This is why contours are presented from 57 dB to 72 Leq dBA in steps of 3 dB.

The latest summer 16-hour Leq dBA contours for 2016 are shown in Appendix C. These show that the 57 dBA contour has increased in size compared with 2011 from 13km2 to 15km2, which is equal to the approximate size of the contour maps produced in 2006 of 15.1km2.

However, the number of people living within the 57 dBA contour has actually remained the same at 3,300 in comparison to the population data from 2011.

Lden contours
Lden contours are based on air traffic movements over the entire year. In addition, a weighting of 5 dB is applied to each of the evening (19:00-23:00) movements and 10 dB for each of the night (23:00-07:00) movements, to take into account the greater disturbance during these periods. Contours for strategic noise mapping are presented in 5 dB steps from 55 dBA to 75 dBA except for Lnight where the contours are presented between 50 dBA and 70 dBA. The strategic contours for Edinburgh Airport are presented in Appendix B.

Lnight contours
The latest 8-hour Lnight contours for 2016 are shown in Appendix D. These show that there has been an overall decrease in the size, population affected, and number of properties within all of the contours in comparison to 2011 data.







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