title: Opportunities for Environmental Noise Mapping in Saudi Arabia: A Case of Traffic Noise Annoyance in an Urban Area in Jeddah City.
abstract: As the traffic and other environmental noise generating activities are growing in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), adverse health and other impacts are expected to develop. The management of such problem involves many actions, of which noise mapping has been proven to be a helpful approach. The objective of the current study was to test the adequacy of the available data in KSA municipalities for generating urban noise maps and to verify the applicability of available environmental noise mapping and noise annoyance models for KSA. Therefore, noise maps were produced for Al-Fayha District in Jeddah City, KSA using commercially available noise mapping software and applying the French national computation method "NMPB" for traffic noise. Most of the data required for traffic noise prediction and annoyance analysis were available, either in the Municipality GIS department or in other governmental authorities. The predicted noise levels during the three time periods, i.e., daytime, evening, and nighttime, were found higher than the maximum recommended levels established in KSA environmental noise standards. Annoyance analysis revealed that high percentages of the District inhabitants were highly annoyed, depending on the type of planning zone and period of interest. These results reflect the urgent need to consider environmental noise reduction in KSA national plans. The accuracy of the predicted noise levels and the availability of most of the necessary data should encourage further studies on the use of noise mapping as part of noise reduction plans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80204, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia. mzytoon@kau.edu.sa.|Department of Occupational Health &amp; Air Pollution, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, 165 El-Horrya Avenue, Alexandria, Egypt. mzytoon@kau.edu.sa.
authors.forename: Mohamed A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Zytoon
mesh_terms: D002947:Cities; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009624:Noise, Transportation / Q000009:adverse effects; D012529:Saudi Arabia
keywords: Jeddah; Saudi Arabia; environmental noise; façade noise levels; grid noise calculation; noise mapping; public noise annoyance; traffic noise