Road Traffic Noise Modelling and Population Exposure Assessments for Large Municipalities in Ontario

Road traffic noise has been proven to have short term and long term impacts on human health. Noise modelling and population exposure studies were widely conducted in European countries, however, there is a lack of efforts in Canada. The objectives of this study was to build road traffic noise models for London, Kitchener, and Markham and validate modelled results with measured noise level. In additional, population exposure to two noise indicator L_den and L_night were assessed and compared between cities. Due to some limitations to this study, noise propagation method was used to build the models and maximum noise façade was applied for population exposure assessments. The results show that more than 80% of populations in all three study areas are exposed to noise level exceeding World Health Organization and Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change guidelines for Lden and Lnight. This study revealed the urgent needs to conduct systematic road traffic noise studies in Canada and facilitate noise legislation.