ABSTRACT
Since outdoor sound propagation involves such a complicated combination of dependencies on source characteristics, source-receiver geometry, intervening terrain and meteorology, empirical and semi-empirical schemes for predicting outdoor noise are rather popular. Frequently, they are ‘customized’ for a particular source type. Consequently, there are separate prediction schemes for road traffic, rail traffic, industry and aircraft. In this chapter we review some of the ‘customized’ schemes, with special emphasis on those that apply in the United Kingdom. A recent EC programme (HARMONOISE [1]) has worked towards a single method of predicting propagation which is to be used together with specific source level predictors. A brief review of the HARMONOISE scheme is given in section 12.7. First, schemes for predicting industrial noise are discussed.
