Road Noise Lnight: Strategic Noise Mapping for England

Strategic noise mapping data shows annual average night-time road noise levels across England. The data is modeled on a 10-meter grid at a 4-meter receptor height and aggregated into polygon noise classes ranging from below 49.9 dB to over 70.0 dB. It was produced to meet the requirements of the EU Environmental Noise Directive and corresponding English regulations.

Use Cases

• Assessing population exposure to night-time road noise based on modeled noise levels in agglomerations.
• Planning noise mitigation measures along major traffic routes using the 10-meter grid noise model.
• Evaluating compliance with the Environmental Noise Directive using the standardized Lnight metric.
• Modeling health impacts of noise pollution using the defined noise class polygons.

Strengths

• Data is modeled on a detailed 10-meter grid, suggesting high spatial granularity.
• Derived from a standardized strategic mapping process mandated by EU and UK regulations.
• Covers all major English agglomerations (population >=100,000) and major traffic routes.

Limitations

• Sources conflict on the analysis year, citing both 2012 and 2017, creating uncertainty about the data's temporal reference.
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, specific columns, and license are unknown.
• Data is modeled, not directly measured, and its update schedule is unclear despite a recent platform metadata update.

Provenance

Source

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (UK Government)

Collection Method

Modeled strategic noise mapping analysis for road sources.

Time Range

2012 or 2017 (conflict in sources)

Freshness

Platform metadata was last updated in June 2026, but the underlying analysis is from 2012 or 2017.

Geography

England, specifically areas with populations of at least 100,000 people (agglomerations) and along major traffic routes.