'Development of Alternative Scenarios for Noise Reduction in Sensitive Areas of Mersin Province' Project signing ceremony organized

The signing ceremony of the 'Development of Alternative Scenarios for Noise Reduction in Sensitive Areas of Mersin Province' Project was held on 06 June 2016 at Mersin Metropolitan Municipality Congress and Exhibition Center. Mayor of Mersin Metropolitan Municipality Burhanettin KOCAMAZ, Head of Environmental Protection and Control Department Dr. Bülent HALİSDEMİR and Environmental Protection Branch Manager Sadık EKER, Deputy Director of TÜBİTAK Marmara Research Center Environment and Clean Production Institute Assoc. Prof. Dr. Haldun KARAN and Project Manager Dr. Nesimi ÖZKURT attended the signing ceremony and World Environment Day activities.

With the project agreement signed between TUBITAK Marmara Research Center and Mersin Metropolitan Municipality on June 06, 2016, studies for the preparation of noise action plans to identify hot spots in terms of environmental noise and develop mitigation scenarios in residential areas where strategic noise maps have been prepared in Mersin within the scope of the principles and criteria specified in the Regulation on the Assessment and Management of Environmental Noise and the Environmental Noise Directive (END) No. 2002/49/EC were initiated.

Within the scope of this study;

• In the residential areas in Mersin where strategic noise maps are prepared, the locations where the limit values specified in the EGDYY are exceeded and where sensitive structures are located will be identified.
• For each source group (road, industry and entertainment) hotspots with exceedances will be identified. In addition, by evaluating the results of the unified strategic noise map, which includes all sources together; the areas of exceedance will be examined.
• Source-based alternative mitigation scenarios will be developed for identified hotspots.
• For the solutions included in the mitigation scenarios, modeling will be carried out using all necessary information such as existing inventory information, digital elevation maps, etc.
• Coordination meetings will be organized to examine the solution alternatives identified in the noise mitigation scenarios of responsible institutions/organizations and stakeholders affected by noise. Action plans prepared by different institutions/organizations for noise mitigation, if any, will also be evaluated in the mitigation scenarios.
• Cost analysis will be carried out for the mitigation scenarios developed.
• Noise Action Plan report including all calculation and evaluation results obtained within the scope of improvement of noisy areas within the scope of action plans will be prepared.

With this project, TÜBİTAK MAM Environment and Cleaner Production Institute will develop noise mitigation scenarios and prepare noise action plans in urbanized areas of Mersin province for the first time in Turkey.