Question 1

How accurate is the noise data?

Accepted Answer

Road, rail, and industrial noise are approximated from OpenStreetMap road, rail, and landuse classifications using proximity buffers. Aviation noise is approximated as runway-aligned lobes (or concentric rings as a fallback) around the world's busiest airports. At-grade rail level crossings are rendered as point dots and add a horn-blow bump to the rail score within ~300 m. Scores combine sources on a dB-style scale and fade smoothly across buffer edges. Treat all results as indicative, not as a substitute for on-site measurement.

Question 2

Does the tool track my location?

Accepted Answer

No. Your location is never automatically shared. All map interactions happen locally in your browser. Address search queries are sent to Nominatim (OpenStreetMap) only when you type a query.

Question 3

Can I share a specific location?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The URL updates as you pan, zoom, toggle layers, or place a pin. Copy the URL from the address bar or use the Share button in the location panel.

Question 4

What is Lden and is the score on this map equivalent to it?

Accepted Answer

Lden (Day-Evening-Night equivalent level) is the EU-standard composite noise indicator that weights evening and night exposure more heavily than daytime. The 1-10 score on this map is not a calibrated Lden value: it is a relative indicator derived from OpenStreetMap-tagged road, rail, and industrial proximities and from runway-aligned aviation lobes, mixed on a dB-style log-sum-exp scale. Use it to compare neighborhoods, not to certify regulatory limits.

Question 5

How often is the underlying data updated?

Accepted Answer

Road, rail, industrial, and rail-crossing layers are derived from OpenStreetMap snapshots and rebuilt on demand by the deploy/ scripts in the repository (no automatic schedule yet). Airport positions follow the OpenFlights public dataset; runway centerlines come from OSM via Overpass. Re-running the build scripts picks up upstream edits the next time the site is deployed.

Question 6

Can I use the noise scores commercially?

Accepted Answer

The underlying OpenStreetMap data is licensed under the Open Database License (ODbL), so derivative works (including the scores you read off this map) inherit ODbL attribution and share-alike obligations. Airport positions follow the OpenFlights database license. The scores themselves are an approximation and are not warranted for safety-critical, real-estate, or regulatory use; they are provided as-is for informational comparison.

Noise Pollution Map — explore road, rail, aviation, and industrial noise for any address