Soundwalks mapping and interaction with facade sound insulation

The sound insulation of façades plays a key role in the improvement of indoor living comfort and protection of the inhabitants from the disturbing noise coming from the outside of the buildings. In order to define law limits or classification schemes, this requirement needs to be related to the outdoor noise impact, expressed as the free-field level for the relevant outdoor sound sources. This study describes a noise mapping method alternative to the standard one, consisting of a monitoring system for the assessment of the outdoor environmental noise based on soundwalks. The walks aim to obtain a more detailed and denser noise mapping as compared to the traditional one because the spatial component was chosen over the temporal component. Indeed, by choosing the suitable spatial distribution it is possible to get a snapshot of the urban acoustic climate. The proposed measured system consists of a GPS-equipped smartphone with a free application installed, used as a mobile station. As a case study, different zones of Milan and surroundings were analysed using soundwalks.