The role of ITS in noise mapping and noise action planning.

For the production of strategic noise maps and noise action plans, as required under the European Noise Directive (END), improved assessment methods for environmental noise will be required. The EU project IMAGINE will provide improved methods for the assessment of noise impacts from railways, roads and aircraft, and industry. The project pays special attention to approaches to road traffic modeling, in particular, to improved accuracy in modelling the current traffic situation and methods to assess of the effects of a range of mitigating measures, for instance when considering Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). This paper gives the initial results of the IMAGINE work package on road traffic modeling, and presents examples of case studies where the effects of ITS measures on noise were assessed.