title: Numerical study of the impact of vegetation coverings on sound levels and time decays in a canyon street model.
abstract: Given a constantly increasing urban population, the mitigation of environmental impacts caused by urbanization has become a critical concern. Sprawling cities accelerate the phenomenon of soil sealing, whose impacts relative to climatology, water cycle and ecology are substantial. The "VegDUD" project, which provides the framework for the present paper, lays out a possible alternative for limiting these deleterious effects through focusing on the role of vegetation in promoting sustainable urban development. The study presented herein addresses the beneficial effect of greening building facades and rooftops in terms of both acoustic level and sound-decay time indicators at low frequency third-octave bands. This is carried out through numerical simulations in the time-domain of sound propagation in a canyon street of infinite length for various scenarios of surface vegetalization. Numerical predictions show a more significant effect in the upper part and outside the street, depending on the location of the vegetalized surfaces, frequency bands and number of reflections on the treated materials.
authors.affiliation: LUNAM Université, Institut français des sciences et technologies des transports, des aménagements et des Réseaux (Ifsttar), Laboratoire d'Acoustique Environnementale (LAE), Centre de Nantes, Route de Bouaye, CS4, 44344 Bouguenais Cedex, France; Institut de recherche en sciences et techniques de la ville (IRSTV), École Centrale de Nantes, 1 rue de la Noë, BP 92101, 44321 Nantes, France. Electronic address: gwenael.guillaume@ifsttar.fr.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guillaume
authors.affiliation: LUNAM Université, Institut français des sciences et technologies des transports, des aménagements et des Réseaux (Ifsttar), Laboratoire d'Acoustique Environnementale (LAE), Centre de Nantes, Route de Bouaye, CS4, 44344 Bouguenais Cedex, France; Institut de recherche en sciences et techniques de la ville (IRSTV), École Centrale de Nantes, 1 rue de la Noë, BP 92101, 44321 Nantes, France.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gauvreau
authors.affiliation: LUNAM Université, Institut français des sciences et technologies des transports, des aménagements et des Réseaux (Ifsttar), Laboratoire d'Acoustique Environnementale (LAE), Centre de Nantes, Route de Bouaye, CS4, 44344 Bouguenais Cedex, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: L'Hermite
mesh_terms: D002947:Cities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013016:Sound; D014507:Urbanization; D014919:Wind
keywords: Canyon street; Green facades; Green rooftops; Sound prediction; Time-domain modeling; Transmission line matrix method