From Early to Recent Models: A Review of the Evolution of Road Traffic and Single Vehicles Noise Emission Modelling

Purpose of the Review

This paper is devoted to the review of the most popular literature Road Traffic Noise Models (RTNMs) frameworks, from the oldest ones to the recent machine learning techniques. A dedicated section is reserved to the review of Noise Emission Models (NEMs), with specific focus on approaches that allow the assessment of single vehicles’ emissions. Finally, some propagation models are also briefly presented, along with the assessment of the impact on the population of road traffic noise, in terms of time-averaged indicators and exposure descriptors.

Recent Findings

In recent years, many efforts have been devoted to developing methods and models to assess the impact of environmental noise. Considering the primary role of road traffic as a noise source, estimating its impact is fundamental when evaluating the acoustic environment of a specific urban area. The scope of RTNMs is to provide an assessment of the noise emitted by the source in terms of traffic flows, propagate it at any desired point, including possible corrective factors, assess the impact at the receiver, and use this information to provide maps and other useful outputs.

Summary

This review summarizes the so-far developed approaches for road traffic noise evaluation and furthermore underscores the ongoing necessity for research to develop more precise tools useful for managing road traffic noise’s adverse effects on urban environments and public well-being. Challenges and limitations of such models are discussed in the conclusions, highlighting the need for providing high quality input data and avoiding site-dependent approaches.