Modeling of Tarsus-Adana-Gaziantep highway-induced noise pollution within the scope of Adana city and estimated the affected population.

The purpose of this study is, via employing SoundPLAN 7.3 software, to model the noise pollution that Tarsus-Adana-Gaziantep (TAG) Highway passing through Adana city induces in Adana city center and to designate the ratio of population exposed to the noise. The study was executed in an area extending from a 17 km-route of TAG Highway passing through Adana city center and 1900.62 ha area that surrounding 500 m north and 500 m south directions of this particular route. The geographical data around the TAG Highway was used to prepare elevation, open-space area, greenfield site, residential building, hospital and school layers in “SoundPLAN 7.3” software. Vehicles data were collected at varying intervals: morning, evening and night in both summer and winter. Noise distribution maps of study area was concocted and assessed as per the Regulation on the Assessment and Management of Environmental Noise issued to prevent noise pollution in Turkey and became effective as of 04.06.2010 upon proclaiming on 27601 no Official Gazette. Subject to the volume of traffic on TAG Highway, it was designated that noise distribution indicated higher scores during summer period in comparison to winter period for the entire set of time-zones. It was found that 63% of the land area of the research area (0.5% of the land area of the Adana city center) exceeds the threshold of 68 dB(A) during daytime in summer. Nearly 5% of the population in Adana city center (16.5% of the population in research area) is exposed to noise levels greater than 68 dB(A). At the night time, 12.5% of the population in Adana city center (45.3% of the population in research area) is exposed to 58 dB(A) or higher noise levels. Comparing the noise level obtained in this study to the standard level, it can be obviously concluded that the noise levels are higher than that of acceptable levels in most parts of the research area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]