The closing meeting of the project "Preparation of Strategic Noise Maps of Residential Areas" was held on 01 December 2015 at Ankara Sheraton Hotel.

Nesimi ÖZKURT, Deniz SARI, Samet Feyyaz HAMAMCI, Melike Neşe TEZEL and Muhammet ERDÖL, researchers; Sebahattin DÖKMECİ, Deputy Director General for Environmental Management, Yavuz Erdal KAYAPINAR, Director General for Spatial Planning, Safiye BİLGİLİ, Environmental Noise and Vibration Management Branch Manager, Nuray HÜSMEN, Esin TÜRKEL, Emine ÇELEBİOĞLU and Füsun TURAN, experts working in the same branch from the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. In addition, a total of 110 people from provincial municipalities, Provincial Directorates of Environment and Urbanization, General Directorate of EIA Permitting and Inspection, General Directorate of Geographical Information Systems, General Directorate of State Airports Authority, General Directorate of Highways, General Command of Mapping, TCDD APK Department, TURKSTAT Department of Environment, Energy and Transportation Statistics and General Directorate of Meteorology participated in the project.

With the project agreement signed between TUBITAK Marmara Research Center and the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization on March 05, 2015, the work on the preparation of strategic noise maps of 15 provinces within the scope of the principles and criteria specified in the regulation and the relevant EU directive was completed. Strategic noise maps were prepared in order to determine the existing noise levels in the residential areas of Adana, Adıyaman, Balıkesir, Elazığ, Erzurum, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Kayseri, Manisa, Mersin, Sakarya, Samsun, Sivas and Trabzon and to determine the number of people, houses, schools and hospitals exposed to noise. Within the scope of the project, several maps were created for each of the noise source groups representing three time periods of the day: daytime (7:00-19:00), evening (19:00-23:00) and nighttime (23:00-7:00).

For 15 provinces upon completion of the project;

• A noise simulation model was created for the first time.
• A spatial noise database was prepared.
• The number of noise sensitive structures (schools, hospitals, residences) in urbanized areas of the provinces was calculated and the number of people exposed to noise in these areas was determined.
• Finally, unified noise maps were completed, expressing the integrated impact of all noise sources.
• With this project, one of the most important implementation steps required by EU harmonization studies for 15 selected provinces in our country was realized.