Analysis of Spatial Development Possibilities of Properties Endangered by Road Noise in the Context of Permissible LN and LDWN Indicators

The paper deals with the problem of road noise pollution in the context of spatial development. The analysis was motivated by the changes in the permissible noise levels that occurred on 1 October 2012 and the high urban pressure on areas located along the main traffic routes. On selected examples of sites located in the districts of Bemowo and Białołęka in Warsaw, the location of land functions is shown on the background of the course of isophones of acceptable noise levels. The analysis was based on data from acoustic maps for Warsaw developed in 2012 and 2017, planning studies, database of topographic objects and current state of development. Based on 20 features and 9 surface and quantitative indicators, determined using ArcGis software, the degree of road noise pollution in planning terms was shown. The analysis has been demonstrated that the changes in legislation have resulted in the acoustic “freeing up” significant areas along the main road, express and accelerated main roads and a reduction in the number of buildings that were considered to be at risk of noise pollution by the law before 2012. The acoustic release indicators for the general area were in the range of 0.71–0.74 for LN and 0.56–0.74 for LDWN. In relation to acoustically sensitive areas the results were in the range of 0.81–0.84 for LN and 0.64–1.00 for LDWN.


INTRODUCTION
Noise is the second environmental problem in the European Union after air pollution. It is the policy of the European Union to achieve a sufficiently high level of health and environmental protection by, among other things, protecting against noise. The directive aims to jointly address the prevention, avoidance and reduction of the destructive effects of noise exposure and the mitigation of noise from various sources, including traffic noise[Directive 2002/49/WE].
The sound of 120-130dB is considered to be the threshold that, when exceeded, causes pain and, in the long term, can be dangerous to health.
[Leśnikowska-Matusiak and Wnuk 2014]. People are exposed to noise almost 24 hours a day, at work, on a walk or at home. The result is an inability to rest and regenerate the human hearing organ comfortably. The product is a shift in the hearing threshold, causing a systematic weakening of the hearing organ. According to epidemiological data, prolonged noise makes the risk of vascular and circulatory diseases 1.7 to 3.0 times more likely in the people exposed to high sound values than those affected by the sounds with lower decibel values. [Babisch at al. 2003] According to a 2008 report commissioned by the Transport & Environment Federation, the negative impact of noise may be responsible for 50,000 heart attacks per year and 5% of strokes in European countries [Babisch et al. 2010]. Noise can also causepsychophysiological changes, depression. [Hurtley 2009] Given the adverse effects of noise on health, the World Health Organization has proposed that the noise levels measured outside a building at night should not exceed 42 dB. It is estimated that the costs associated with abovestandard transport noise of public health significance, oscillate around €40 million annually, 90% of which is generated by road noise. [ Ubiquitous noise has to be considered in land development. However, this should be done in accordance with the law and the existing restrictions. The changes in the Polish law regarding the permissible noise levels in the environment give more and more freedom to carry out investments in the areas classified as noise-sensitive. Urbanisation and suburbanisation processes are inevitable, and the most vulnerable areas are those on the periphery of cities and agglomerations but well-connected municipalities ]. The attempts to assess the impact of noise on the land use options have already been studied [Podawca 2014, Podawca andStaniszewski 2019], and the methodology used will be used in the following study.

THE GOAL OF THE STUDY
The aim of the performed analyses encompassed showing the possibilities included in spatial development regarding the increase of permissible noise levels caused by roads with heavy traffic, which came to force on 1 October 2012. The territorial scope of the analysis was narrowed down to three areas meeting the following criteria: − occurrence of road class G, GP or E; − proximity of noise-sensitive functions; − varying degree of urbanisation; − location within the administrative borders of the city.
All selected sites lie within the boundaries of the city of Warsaw (Fig. 1). The first area is located in the Bemowo district. It covers three precincts: 6-12-08, 6-12-09, and 6-12-14, hereinafter referred to as "POW-I". The analysed area covers a total of 84.30 ha. The area is crossed by Powstańców Śląskich Street (10.35 ha) which has the main road class (G), the southern boundary is Połczyńska Street which has the main accelerated traffic class (GP) and the northern border is Człuchowska Street -a collective road. This area is highly urbanised.
The second analysis area 'MOD-II' is located in the area of Białołęka district, comprising precincts no: 4-02-31, 4-02-34, 4-01-09, 4-01-15, 4-01-28 and occupies a total area of 113.31 ha. The main road generating noise is Modlińska Street, which has the status of a main accelerated traffic road, a two-lane road with three lanes in each direction. The acoustic climate is also influenced by Mehoffera Street of the collective road class. This area is moderately urbanised.
The third analysed area is not very urbanised in comparison with the two previous ones. Administratively, it is located in the Bemowo district. It includes precincts: 6-13-01, 6-13-02, 6-13-03, 6-13-04 and 6-13-07. Obrońców Grodna Avenue, which is an expressway (S), runs through the area in the north-south direction, and in the east-west direction the area is crossed by Szeligowska Street, which has the status of a collector road. The analysed area named "OBR-III" occupies 119.20 hectares. It provides a good perspective example as we can expect it to undergo significant spatial development in the future, given its proximity to the S8 route and the planned metro line including a station.

METHODS
Due to the character of the problem and the research methodology, the analysis should be considered the case study. The case study has become a prevalent analytical method in architecture and urban planning. The case study used in the article encompasses an in-depth analysis of specific objects by distinguishing the features and qualitative elements of a defined metropolitan area [Niezabitowska 2014].
In order to proceed the RT1 research task, the authors utilised acoustic maps for Warsaw from 2012 and 2017, produced using a digital method in the Polish national 'PUWG 2000' coordinate system by the publishing houses BMTcom, SVANTEK and PVO at the request of the Mayor of the Capital City of Warsaw. In order to overlay the course of individual isophone on the plan of separate research areas, the ArcGIS software was used. With regard to road communication areas, the areas exposed to road noise of different levels have been designated. As a result, a spatially-oriented map data exemplifying the deterioration or improvement of the acoustic climate was obtained.
The   Table 1.

RESULTS
Due to the changes in the permissible noise levels that do not coincide with the main isophones determined in the acoustic maps, a digital interpolation of the course of the 59dB, 64dB and 68dB isophones for the two periods of 2012 and 2017 was made.
While analysing the data in Table 2, it is possible to observe a worsening of the acoustic climate in two areas. In the "POW-I" area, the fragments of the areas exposed to the sound above 68dB in the day-evening-night time increased by 2.48% and for 64dB by 3.32%. At night time, noise above 59dB was recorded in an area 1.02% larger than in 2012. Fairly minor negative changes in the acoustic climate may have been caused by the deterioration of the pavement and increased traffic on Powstańców Śląskich Street while maintaining the state of land use. The definitely worse situation can be observed in the area of "OBR-III". The percentage of the areas exposed to the noise of 68dB and 64dB for L DWN index increased by 10.66% and 10.01%. For an L N of 59dB the increase was 9.99%. Such large negative increases may have been caused by a significant increase in the operation of the S8 route section, which was opened in 2011 and its impact on the 2012 acoustic maps may have been much smaller. The only area where the acoustic conditions improved is the "MOD-II" area. The area exposed to the 68dB noise during daytime and evening/night-time decreased by 7.06%, 64dB by 9.27% and 59dB at night by 5.23%. This improvement was probably related to the modernisation of the street and the intersections along Modlińska Street.
The results concerning the spatial and construction features resulting from the risk of a road traffic noise are shown in Table 3.

DISCUSSION
The values of the acoustic and spatial indicators for the analysed areas are presented in Table 4.
While analysing the values above, it should be stated that the changes in the permissible road noise levels significantly influence the interpretation of acoustic risk in urbanised areas. In terms of acreage, night-time noise pollution under the amended legislation resulted in a reduction of the acreage of areas considered noise-sensitive by as much as 74% within the boundaries of the "POW-I" site ( Fig. 2), 77% on MOD-II (Fig. 4) and 71% on "OBR-III" (Fig. 6). This had a direct effect on reducing the number of buildings treated as noise-exposed, and thus the number of people living in them. There was an 82% reduction in their number in Site I, and a 77% reduction in Sites II and III. Increasing the L DWN limit for day/evening/ night from 55dB to 64dB reduced the area considered to be affected by road noise by 62% in Site I (Fig. 3), 69% in Site II (Fig. 5) and 56% in Site III (Fig. 7). Similarly, for the buildings themselves, this was a reduction of 65% within Site I, 63% in Site II and 69% in Site III. The changes looked even more unfavourable regarding the increase of the LDWN noise levels from 60dB to 68dB.  In the area of "POW-I" and "MOD-II", the areas were reduced by 74% (Fig. 3) and in "OBR-III" by 70% (Fig. 7). Considering the release of the buildings themselves, it was analogically 78%, 100% and 80%. The indicators of functional-acoustic release are more objective as they refer only to the areas that, according to the Regulation of the Minister of Environmental Protection, are considered sensitive to noise. Concerning the areas of single-family housing, housing connected with permanent or temporary residence of children and young people, nursing homes and hospitals in cities, the change of the permissible value of the L DWN parameter from 55dB to 64dB resulted in a reduction of the areas at risk by 72% in the "POW-I" area, 64% in the "MOD-II" area and by 67% in the "OBR-III" area. Concerning multifamily housing and collective residence, farmsteads, recreational and leisure areas as well as residential and service areas, the amendment to the regulations resulted in a reduction of the area of land considered under the rule as threatened by railway noise by 83% in Area I, 100% in Area II and 90% in Area III. In the context of the night time, the change of acceptable noise level from 50dB to 59dB sensitive areas was reduced by 84% in the area of "POW-I" and "OBR-III" and 81% in the area of "MOD-II".
It should be emphasised that the degree of urbanisation of the area did not cause significant differences in the acoustic release of the area in terms of surface.

CONCLUSIONS
The analyses carried out clearly showed how critical the introduction of new regulations, liberalising the permissible sound levels in the environment, was for the acoustic climate. Increases of the maximum road noise indicators L N and  L DWN prove very beneficial from the investors' point of view. Acoustic unblocking of quite many areas, at the level of 71-77% for night time and 56-74% for day/evening/night time allows realizing housing, service and residential and recreational investments without additional protection.
Concerning the current situation of the so-called acoustically sensitive areas, these have been reduced by 81-84% at night and 64-72% for single-family residential buildings and 83-100% for multi-family residential buildings during daytime, evening and night time. The values above clearly show that the implementation of residential development functions near main accelerated, main and express roads will not pose a significant legislative problem. The situation is much worse in the social and health context. Comparing the WHO recommended maximum night-time noise level of 42dB with the Polish limit of 59dB, there is a difference of 17dB. When assessing whether this is a lot and balancing the economic, social and health interests by giving equal weight to all of the above, it is necessary to refer to the basics of acoustics. A decibel (dB) is ten decimal logarithms of the ratio of the pressure of a sound wave to a reference pressure of 2x10-5 N/m 2 . It means that a 1dB increase in noise causes a 1.26-fold increase in sound pressure. A doubling of the pressure at which a person begins to feel the difference in perceived noise corresponds to a 3 dB change in sound level. [Leśnikowska-Matusiak and Wnuk 2014]. No one seems to have taken this into account when raising the permissible values of acoustic indicators by 9dB, causing a tenfold increase in sound pressure-even using the scale of the subjective annoyance of traffic noise [www. profon.pl] it can be observed that the current values of permissible sound levels fall within the medium disturbance in terms of L N and high in terms of L DWN .
Unfortunately, the analyses performed confirmed the general view that Poland's standards of noise protection are deficient. Simultaneously, in Europe, the Ministry of Environment raised the permissible communication noise levels, which means that practically every inhabitant of the areas along the higher-level roads will be exposed to the noise harmful to their health, but compliant with the Polish regulations.