The opening meeting of the 'Preparation of Strategic Noise Maps of Residential Areas' Project was held on May 8, 2015 at Rixos Grand Ankara Hotel. The meeting was attended by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bahadır TUNABOYLU, President of TUBITAK Marmara Research Center, Prof. Dr. Mehmet KİTİŞ, Acting Director of the Institute of Environment and Cleaner Production, Dr. Nesimi ÖZKURT, Project Coordinator, Dr. Dr. Nesimi ÖZKURT, Deniz SARI, Samet Feyyaz HAMAMCI, Ece Gizem ÇAKMAK and Tuğba DOĞAN from Researchers; Sebahattin DÖKMECİ, Deputy Director General of Environmental Management, Betül AYDIN, Head of Air Management Department, Safiye BİLGİLİ, Branch Manager, Nuray HÜSMEN, Esin TÜRKEL, Emine ÇELEBİOĞLU and Füsun TURAN from the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. In addition, a total of 70 participants 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 Project Preparation and Evaluation Branch Directorate, 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, studies for the preparation of strategic noise maps of 15 provinces were initiated 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. Strategic noise maps will be prepared in order to determine the existing noise levels in the urbanized 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. Noise maps of industrial facilities, entertainment places, highways and railways in the project study area will be completed.
Three distinct time periods of the day, day (07-19), evening (19-23) and night (23-07);
- 5 dB (A) range maps,
- >55, >65 and >75 dB(A) maps,
- Frontline maps,
- Limit value maps will be created.
For 15 provinces when the project is finalized;
- A noise simulation model will be created for the first time.
- A spatial noise database will be prepared.
- The number of noise sensitive structures (schools, hospitals, residences) in urbanized areas of the provinces will be calculated and the number of people exposed to noise in these areas will be determined.
- Finally, strategic noise maps will be finalized, expressing the integrated impact of all noise sources.
With this project, one of the most important implementation steps required by the EU harmonization studies for 15 selected provinces in our country will be realized.
