Measurement network for urban noise assessment: Comparison of mobile measurements and spatial interpolation approaches

This paper investigates the relevance of different interpolation techniques to improve the spatial resolution of urban noise maps, in complement to measurements achieved at fixed stations. Interpolation techniques based on mobile measurements are compared to usual spatial interpolations techniques, namely Inverse Distance Weighting and Kriging. The analyses rely on a measurement campaign, which consisted of nearly 8 h of geo-referenced mobile noise measurements performed at random moments of the day, conducted simultaneously with continuous measurements collected at five fixed stations located on the inner city of Gent, Belgium. Firstly, a procedure is proposed to build a noise map with a high spatial resolution (one point every 5 m). The procedure relies on both mobile and fixed measurements: the mobile measurements are used to capture spatial variations on the network, and the measurements at fixed stations are used to capture the temporal variations. The map produced is then used as reference to compare the interpolation techniques based on a significantly more sparse measurement set. The spatial interpolation techniques tested fail in predicting accurately the noise level variations within streets. The explanation given is that they do not offer a sufficient covering of the network, and assume spatial variations which are not coherent with traffic dynamics or street configurations. Inversely, mobile measurements cover the entire network. As a result, they allow a more accurate prediction of noise levels even if very short samples are used, provided that the procedure used to estimate noise levels includes a spatial aggregation, which aims at smoothing the high spatial variations inevitable with short samples. Moreover, mobile measurements can advantageously be used to optimize, through a Genetic Algorithm, the locations where to install fixed stations, promising an efficient noise monitoring at reduced operational costs. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.