Institute of Chemical and Physical Processes of National Research Council, Via G. Moruzzi 1, 56124, Pisa, Italy.
Environmental Protection Agency of Tuscany Region (ARPAT), Pisa Department, Via Vittorio Veneto 27, 56127, Pisa, Italy.
Environ Pollut. 2023 Nov 15;337:122487. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122487. Epub 2023 Aug 31.
Low noise pavements (LNPs) are a market driven trend to mitigate the high road traffic noise exposure levels. Their improvement towards acoustic efficiency and durability over time is a challenge since these factors can conflict with road primary functions, such as safety. LNPs are not always the most cost-effective solution in health effects prevention. Whilst Green Public Procurement (GPP) highlighted the importance of reducing rolling noise emissions by introducing new regulations for new-layed LNPs, the fixed minimum requirements are not exhaustive. Generally, limits are set following the Close ProXimity method, which is only source oriented. This method does not consider real traffic flows and it is not aimed at evaluating citizens' disturbance. This work presents strategy tools that could assist policymakers in choosing LNPs, when truly effective, over other mitigations. The approach includes a variety of indicators that would allow for comparing different facets of noise assessment. The proposed methodology does not require additional efforts from stakeholders because the measurements required for the estimation of the indicators must already be carried out for both verification of legal limits and GPP. The strategy tools are a decisional tree to support the evaluation of the applicability of a LNP before its approval, and an evaluation flowchart applicable after its laying to evaluate its efficiency. Finally, a first LNP labeling approach, based on the same set of indicators, is proposed. As a case study, these tools are applied to measurements performed before and after the laying of twelve LNPs part of the LIFE NEREiDE project.
低噪声路面 (LNPs) 是一种市场驱动的趋势，旨在减轻道路交通噪声暴露水平。随着时间的推移，提高其声学效率和耐久性是一项挑战，因为这些因素可能与道路的主要功能（如安全性）相冲突。LNPs 并不总是预防健康影响的最具成本效益的解决方案。虽然绿色公共采购 (GPP) 通过为新铺设的 LNPs 引入新法规强调了减少滚动噪声排放的重要性，但固定的最低要求并不详尽。通常，限值是按照近距离方法设定的，该方法仅针对声源。这种方法不考虑实际交通流量，也不是为了评估市民的干扰。本工作提出了一些策略工具，这些工具可以帮助决策者在选择 LNPs 时，在真正有效的情况下，将其与其他缓解措施进行比较。该方法包括各种指标，这些指标可用于比较噪声评估的不同方面。所提出的方法不需要利益相关者付出额外的努力，因为为了估计指标而进行的测量已经为验证法律限制和 GPP 进行了。该策略工具是一个决策树，用于在批准之前评估 LNPs 的适用性，以及一个评估流程图，适用于铺设后评估其效率。最后，提出了一种基于同一组指标的首个 LNPs 标签方法。作为案例研究，这些工具应用于 LIFE NEREiDE 项目铺设的十二个 LNPs 之前和之后进行的测量。
