Development of a Quantitative Methodology to Assess the Impacts of Urban Transport Interventions and Related Noise on Well-Being

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Matthias Braubach⁵  Myriam Tobollik⁶  Pierpaolo Mudu⁵  Rosemary Hiscock³  Dimitris Chapizanis¹  Denis A. Sarigiannis¹  Menno Keuken²  Laura Perez⁴  Marco Martuzzi⁵ 

[1] Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Environmental Engineering Laboratory, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; E-Mails:;Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands; E-Mail:;School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, University Road, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK; E-Mail:;Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstr. 57, 4002 Basel, Switzerland; E-Mail:;European Centre for Environment and Health, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany; E-Mails:;Federal Environment Agency, Section II 1.6 Exposure Assessment and Environmental Health Indicators, 14195 Berlin, Germany; E-Mail:

关键词: urban policies;    climate change;    mitigation;    greenhouse gas;    transport;    noise;    well-being;    impact assessment;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph120605792

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Well-being impact assessments of urban interventions are a difficult challenge, as there is no agreed methodology and scarce evidence on the relationship between environmental conditions and well-being. The European Union (EU) project “Urban Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in China and Europe” (URGENCHE) explored a methodological approach to assess traffic noise-related well-being impacts of transport interventions in three European cities (Basel, Rotterdam and Thessaloniki) linking modeled traffic noise reduction effects with survey data indicating noise-well-being associations. Local noise models showed a reduction of high traffic noise levels in all cities as a result of different urban interventions. Survey data indicated that perception of high noise levels was associated with lower probability of well-being. Connecting the local noise exposure profiles with the noise-well-being associations suggests that the urban transport interventions may have a marginal but positive effect on population well-being. This paper also provides insight into the methodological challenges of well-being assessments and highlights the range of limitations arising from the current lack of reliable evidence on environmental conditions and well-being. Due to these limitations, the results should be interpreted with caution.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.