Environmental Noise Management

This paper considers a quantitative modeling approach for the management of environmental noise, i.e., noise emanating from sources that cannot be controlled by those who hear them. Especially in urban areas, environmental noise is one of the most pervasive, annoying, and costly residuals of human activity. A number of alternatives exist that can control both the intensity and duration of environmental noise throughout an urban area. After applying a systematic procedure for identifying the important noise sources and noise receptors, and for defining the cost of alternatives for noise reduction at and between each source and receptor, both optimization and simulation models can be used for evaluating environmental noise management alternatives. Examined in this paper are two simplified separable programming (optimization) models that can be used as aids in the preliminary analysis of alternative noise management strategies.