REVERBERATION TIME AS AN INDICATOR FOR NOISE MAPS

Abstract

Despite being an important acoustic parameter in urban canyons, reverberation time (RT) is little used to make noise maps. This paper focuses on urban RT and urban equivalent sound pressure level (LAeq) in order to construct noise maps. Therefore, these indicators were sampled in 31 points distributed in the central region of a medium-sized Brazilian city. In addition, constructive geometric characteristics and the vehicle flow were collected. These data were used as input for a reverberation time prediction equation and then used to develop a thematic map on a GIS platform by applying the inverse distance interpolation method. Furthermore, a LAeq indicator noise map was made using the NMPB-Routes 2008 method in calculation commercial software. The results show a relationship between LAeq and the urban RT map. Moreover, the results allowed the validation of a predictive RT model able to calculate future scenario acoustics based on geometric-constructive features and vehicular flow.