The creation of the permanent noise measurement network results from a partnership between Greater Lyon and Acoucité.
It follows a proposal of the association in 2002 to work on a project about an environmental noise observatory on the scale of the urban area of Lyon.
In 2005, several workshops were hold gathering European and French experts, in particular partners of the association. It lead to the launch of a market of measurement station supplies supported by Greater Lyon. These workshops were also valued through scientific and technical publications (cf. sound observatory guide, congress in 2004 with INCE-EUROPE http://www.i-ince.org/membership/europe.htm).
About 25 measurement beacons have been deployed since 2006.
Their locations were chosen in order to describe the diversity and to be representative of the different sound atmospheres encountered on the urban area of Lyon.
Selection criteria were:
- Diversity between the town centre (Lyon plus Villeurbanne), the first and the second belt surrounding the urban area of Lyon according to a specific rule about the number of inhabitants
- Diversity of the sound situations coming from road, rail, air traffics and to human activities (leisure, trade, other activities…)
- Diversity of time scales. On one hand, some beacons (about 20) measure for an unlimited length of time in order to report on the global noise evolution. On the other hand, some beacons (about 5) measure for a few years in order to report on noise evolutions coming from major urban projects (roads creation or transformation, urban parks creation…)
Related results on Acoucité website interface follow some principles:
- values by beacon;
- values on the day, the month and the year (in the long term as all beacons will be deployed);
- statistic values in accordance with the main indexes described in French and European regulations;
- a “reference” value defined by the mean of all beacons in order to compare them;
- values with a one week time shift in order to ensure data validation (in case of breakdowns, errors…).
The objectives of this noise observatory based on permanent measurement are:
- Complete the approach based on tools to model noise map (http://bruit.grandlyon.com) and tools for noise perception assessment and the other one based on sound atmospheres recording;
- Offer a public information on the current state and evolutions, with a “relative” lecture, of the various sound atmospheres encountered on a territory as diversified as an urban area;
- Anticipate, monitor and capitalize knowledge during the realisation of main projects around the city ;
- Ease the knowledge, thus the control and the sharing of transport effects in term of noise but also pollution, landscape impact…
For a more complete approach, please read the educational guide on our website.