Assessment of Environmental Noise by Harmonica Index – Case Study: The City of Niš

Abstract:

Noise is a very present environmental nuisance, especially in urban areas. Information on the noise environment of agglomerations over 100,000 inhabitants is now available thanks to the publication of the first strategic noise maps made for the 2002/49/EC European directive. However, it currently remains difficult to understand the environmental noise data because of the used noise indicators expressed in decibel unit, which is complicated to explain and relatively far-removed from the perception of people. Acoucité and Bruitparif, two French organizations specialized for management and organization of urban noise observatories in France, have worked on a proposal for a new index closer to the perception of people. At the end of the HARMONICA project a new environmental noise index called the Harmonica index is suggested. The Harmonica index is an adimensional index with values between 0 and 10. This is why 93% of people surveyed during the project find the Harmonica index easy to understand. According to the Harmonica index the sound environment can be assessed as quiet, noisy and very noisy. The overview of the Harmonica index, the structure of Toots software for the Harmonica index calculation and an example of application of the Harmonica index for assessment of environmental noise in the city of Niš will be given in this paper.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volume 801)
• Pages: 51-59
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.801.51
• Online since: October 2015
• Authors: Momir Prascevic*, Darko Mihajlov, Dragan Cvetkovic, Aleksandar Gajicki
• Keywords: Environmental Noise, Harmonica Index, Measurement

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DOI: 10.1260/0263-0923.34.3.251