In recent years, environmental noise has been recognised as the second most influential environmental reason for ill health in Europe, after air pollution (Hänninen et al., 2014; WHO and JRC, 2011). Railway noise is commonly recognised as the second most dominant source of noise pollution, following road traffic noise.

the increasing evidence linking railway noise with various negative health outcomes including hypertension (Seidler et al., 2016), annoyance (Gille et al., 2017; Beutel et al., 2016; Bodin et al., 2015) and sleep disturbance (van Kamp et al., 2020; Brink et al., 2019; Smith et al., 2017), railway noise in Europe has received attention in terms of strategic noise mapping and population exposure analysis since 2007 when Environmental Noise Directive (END) has required that EU Member States (MS) generate strategic noise maps every 5 years for their railway line.

But how about in other country, let’s say in my country Indonesia?

Do we really need this kind of attention as same as European did for our railway system?

There are two ways to quantify the noise exposure from railway line: (1) by doing the direct measurement using sound level meter to get 24 hours noise level if refer to Indonesian regulation, and (2) by doing the computer modelling to get the noise level in targeted area based on standard or scientific equation.

Let’s talk more detail for both of it.

The direct measurement method is referred to “Keputusan Menteri Negara Lingkungan Hidup, No. 48 Tahun 1996. Tentang : Baku Tingkat Kebisingan” local regulation. Which regulate the noise level of outdoor spaces based on the function of area such as residential, hospital, office, etc against the noise monitoring measurement data for minimum 24 hours.

This kind of method is effective to quantify the noise that we already know if the area has noise complaint or for a few buildings. But when we talk about large scale area, let’s say Jakarta which has more than ten thousand buildings, do we really can do the measurement for each building?

Nothing is impossible right?

What we need is investment to purchase sound level meter, hire professionals, and also time investment. if we want to speed things up, invest more money for more SLM and professionals. The question is, is it sustain or not? If in the middle of measurement process there are any changes of train type or railway line, should we redo all the measurement from the starting point? Or if there are new buildings is built, should we measure it? Yes!

So that the direct measurement is not an effective and sustainable way to do the large-scale noise mapping or nation wide noise mapping.

The second method is to model the railway system noise exposure with computer software such as SoundplanNoise 9.0 to get the noise level data for each critical area. By doing this, if there is any change with railway line, train type, tunnel, bridge, or there is a new building in the middle of modelling process, it can be solved by clicking the mouse button or keyboard. Of course, we still need professional to operate the software and it is a must!

Back to the topic, does Indonesia need nation-wide noise mapping for their railway system?

What I learned from my experience as an acoustic consultant in Indoneisa, that we don’t really know if our railway system is acoustically problem or not. Since there is not enough data to say it is a problem. I try to search about railway noise problem and research in Indonesia and we have no more than 100 area noise level data generate by our existing or future railway system. If compared to total building which more than ten thousands, it is considered as negligible.

By applying the nation-wide noise mapping using computation modelling for all railway system in Indonesia, or at least some big city first like Jakarta or Surabaya, we can define if it is a nation-wide problem or not, because we would know how many areas that exceed the noise limit by modelling all railway line. And at last, we can formulate the solution to solve the problem itself. Is it by using wall barrier if there is problem with airborne noise? Is it by using anti-skid vibration on track ballast if there is problem with ground borne noise?

Define the problem first and we could know the most efficient way to solve it!

Because acoustic is not a luxury, it’s a necessity!