Urban transformation influence over the acoustic comfort: pilot study from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Campus

Abstract This work aims to present a methodology to analyze the influence of the urban transformation in the acoustic comfort for an urban space. This evaluation is based on a pilot study, using the campus of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) as object of analysis. Several urban transformations took place along the years, many of them proposed by the Master Plan of UFRJ for 2020. The noise impact evaluation due to the transformations was performed through noise map comparison of several urban configurations, mainly by traffic flow and buildings morphology. The noise map validation was performed by noise level measurements at points of special interest. The maps were generated using vehicular data counting and typology survey. The maps analysis as function of the urban transformations shown that the noise levels are higher than the stated by the environmental standards, and allowed to identify the main causes of such noise increase. Therefore, it was able to critically analyze the urban transformations along the time and the actual spatial configuration in order to propose actions to reduce the noise pollution and improve the hearing comfort at the UFRJ campus.