A New Approach for Determining Quiet Area Accessibility in England

The introduction of the European Environmental Noise Directive (END) in 2002 has made available a wealth of noise exposure statistics and maps for EU urban agglomerations to acousticians and the general public. It has also introduced a mandate for the identification and protection of so-called “Quiet Areas” in cities.
The recognition of the importance of Quiet Areas as an enhancement to the urban environment leads to the question of how much of the urban population of a given agglomeration, with a particular environmental noise environment, can benefit from access to them. In particular, do the most vulnerable people from a social point of view have the same level of access to quiet open spaces as the most advantaged social groups?
This paper presents a methodology that allows the identification of Quiet Areas and the determination of their accessibility, which in conjunction with social vulnerability statistics allows the identification of problem areas in English urban environments. A case study for the city of Southampton that uses publicly available noise maps, social data and open source software tools is shown.