A strategic noise map consists of a presentation of data related to a reference acoustic situation expressed on diverse noise indicators, including estimations of the number of affected people.
The General Directorate of Roads (D.G.C.) of the Ministry of Public Works is in charge of the making of the Strategic Noise Maps (MER) of major roads for which the Central Government of Spain is competent. In agreement with the Law of Noise and the Real Decree 1513/2005 that develops it, in year 2007, the maps of roads whose traffic (2003) is at least 6 million vehicles a year, must be made. This is commonly known as the first phase of implementation of Directive 2002/49/EC.
The D.G.C is carrying out 20 studies that include all major roads of its reponsability (5,000 km approximately).
Each study (except first) includes several major roads, generally, a complete Province or a "Comunidad Autónoma" (region), or one or several traffic corridors.
The following information is available for the public, and it can be consulted and downloaded from this web site.
Report summary
Document that summarizes the main characteristics of the study, the description of the roads, and the summary of main results (only spanish version).
Graphical information of each of the major roads included in the study can also be consulted. Each major road is analyzed separately, and it is called "Unidad de Mapa Estratégico (U.M.E.)" (Unit of Strategic map).
An UME has the following information:
It shows the data requested by the European Commissinegro12pxon. It shows the number of people (by hundreds) exposed at different intervals of sound levels for indicators Lden and Lnight.
•MAPS in format PDF (IGN)They are presented according to the Spanish standarized sheet divisions of the National Geographic Institute, 3 types of maps for each UME can be consulted:
- Noise map of isophones Lden
- Noise map of isophones Lnoche
- Map of affected zone
This last map contains information related to Lden demanded by the European Commission and includes a table with data on surfaces, dwellings and population exposed to Lden values higher than 55, 65 and 75 dB.
For each UME three files have 3een generated, in format kmz that allow to visualize with Google Earth, the maps of noise levels (noise contours) Lden and Ln and the affection zone map. The maps Lden and Ln include the data of exposed population. The affection zone map include information
(
) relating to the surface, number of dwellings, population, schools and hospitals, required by the Directive 2002/49/CE.
For each UME three images have been generated, of the complete UME, in format ecw corresponding to the maps of noise levels (noise contours) Lden and L and the affection zone map. These files, georeferenced, allow to visualize the maps in a simple and fast way with the most habitual visor software (ERMAPPER, etc.).