title: Evaluation of road traffic noise abatement by vegetation treatment in a 1:10 urban scale model.
abstract: A 1:10 scale of a street canyon and courtyard was constructed to evaluate sound propagation when various vegetation treatments including trees, shrubs, vegetated facades, and green roofs were installed in the urban environment. Noise reductions in the street canyon and courtyard were measured for both single and combined vegetation treatments. Vegetated facades mitigated the overall noise level up to 1.6 dBA in the street canyon, and greening facades were effective to reduce low frequency noise levels below 1 kHz. Trees increased the noise level at high frequency bands to some extent in the street canyon, while the noise level over 1 kHz decreased in the courtyard after installing the street trees. This is because tree crowns diffused and reflected high frequency sounds into the street canyon. Green roofs offered significant noise abatement over 1 kHz in the courtyard, while the vegetated facade was effective to reduce noise levels at low frequencies. In terms of the integrated effects of vegetation treatments, a combined vegetation treatment was less effective than the sum of single treatments in the street canyon. The maximum noise reduction observed for all combinations of vegetation treatments provided 3.4 dBA of insertion loss in the courtyard.
authors.affiliation: Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyung Suk
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.affiliation: Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Korea.
authors.forename: Sung Chan
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Korea.
authors.forename: Jin Yong
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.affiliation: School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kang
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D001336:Automobiles; D002958:City Planning; D004779:Environment Design; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000517:prevention & control; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009038:Motion; D009624:Noise, Transportation / Q000517:prevention & control*; D013016:Sound; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D014197:Trees