Project Summary
Transportation system noise has recognized impacts on health and childhood learning. Traffic noise is an inequity artifact of redlining and has been coarsely modeled in terms of inequitable impacts. But this unvalidated modeling primarily uses distance from highway to estimate noise level. With previous NCST funding, the research team have developed and field-validated a very high resolution noise model for California highways and roads (1 to 30-m resolution). The team will use this model to characterize impacts to disadvantaged communities (DAC), especially from freight traffic and to model benefits of specific mitigation actions. The research team will share impact and mitigation information with community organizations to understand their standards for acceptable mitigation actions. In partnership with these community representatives, the research will develop noise mitigation approaches. These actions will include modeled walls and berms between highways and affected communities. This research will run the noise model with varying mitigation action types and dimensions to achieve mitigation of impacts. The goal is to develop practices that are both useful in these neighborhoods and that can become the basis for best practices for future transportation noise mitigation.
