NoiseMap Ltd software

NoiseMap models and calculates road traffic noise using a method called ‘Calculation of Road Traffic Noise’ (CRTN).  It was originally published in 1975 and was updated in 1988. Further refinements have been devised since then and these have also been incorporated into NoiseMap.

NoiseMap models and calculates noise from all types of ‘tracked transit systems’ i.e. ordinary railways, high-speed railways, metros and tram systems using a procedure called ‘Calculation of Railway Noise’ (CRN) which was published in 1995.  Its basic concept is similar to Calculation of Road Traffic Noise, with various modifications to account for the different nature of railways.  Since the original publication of CRN, various enhancements have been published and these are incorporated in the NoiseMap implementation.

This noise map shows the spread of noise from an industrial site. The coloured areas show how the noise spreads out, with purple areas being the noisiest and pale green being the quietest. The irregular edges of the contour are due to screening by buildings and other structures.

Site Noise can model any noise source in the open air. Noise sources on such sites are often highly variable, in type, in location and in time, but with care it is possible to obtain accurate noise predictions.  These can be used to check that a site will comply with any noise limits that have been imposed.  

The Server is the computer that hosts the noise model for NoiseMap five when using the remote database option.  It is not needed if you choose the ‘Standalone’ option.  If you want the capabilities of the remote database, but don’t wish to set up your own server, you can hire space on NoiseMap’s Cloud Server.

The limits on model size are essentially the practical ones of computer memory and processing speed – although the data input and processing techniques used by NoiseMap are designed to work efficiently with very large models.  NoiseMap five can use multi-core processors and distributed processing which make the maximum use of available processing capacity.

We haven’t tried to answer this question previously because it is dependent on so many variables that it is very diffcult to give a meaningful answer. NoiseMap implements the UK standard methodology natively. These methods were designed for manual calculation and they are very computationally efficient. Every effort has been made to maintain this efficiency in the NoiseMap implementation.

NoiseMap Enterprise Edition is NoiseMap’s long-established software for modelling and mapping noise from roads, railways, industrial, construction and other open sites. It is offered for users who have particular regulatory or legacy requirements for noise mapping who have a single type of noise (road, rail or industrial) to calculate over moderate areas.

NoiseMap is mathematically intensive.  Client machines will benefit from the fastest processors available, especially when using NoiseMap five to model huge areas. A machine specified for CAD or similar work should be suitable.  NoiseMap five is multi-threaded, allowing noise calculations to use all available cores in a single computer.