How we are doing it
The research will comprise four interrelated work packages (WP) as follows:
The research will comprise four interrelated work packages (WP) as follows:
WP 1 – Review of Current State of Knowledge:
The WP comprises 2 key subtasks:
Subtask 1.1 will provide an international state of knowledge review exploring the academic evidence base linking transport noise-exposure and health and wellbeing impacts. Four thematic areas will be addressed in this review:
Subtask 1.2 will examine international best practice exemplars within the existing knowledge base to explore the potential for policy/knowledge transfer to the Irish context specifically for providing noise mitigation SOLUTIONS. This could take the form of source-specific solutions to target mitigation of noise from each major transport source (road, rail, air) as well as the potential for nature-based solutions in Irish cities. In overall terms WP 1 will identify PRIORITY areas for action.
The WP comprises 2 key subtasks:
Subtask 1.1 will provide an international state of knowledge review exploring the academic evidence base linking transport noise-exposure and health and wellbeing impacts. Four thematic areas will be addressed in this review:
- Noise exposure, sleep disturbance and related effects;
- Noise exposure and annoyance;
- Vulnerable groups (the elderly and children);
- Special cases (e.g. low frequency noise).
Subtask 1.2 will examine international best practice exemplars within the existing knowledge base to explore the potential for policy/knowledge transfer to the Irish context specifically for providing noise mitigation SOLUTIONS. This could take the form of source-specific solutions to target mitigation of noise from each major transport source (road, rail, air) as well as the potential for nature-based solutions in Irish cities. In overall terms WP 1 will identify PRIORITY areas for action.
WP 2 – Noise and Health: Investigating causal relationships using Irish health data:
This WP aims to provide city-based analysis to ENHANCE THE EVIDENCE BASE on the casual relationships between noise exposure and health and wellbeing outcomes. It will combine existing microdata on health outcomes and potential confounding socioeconomic factors with data on predicted noise exposures to explore links between noise exposure and negative health and wellbeing outcomes. In this sense, the result of this work package will also feed directly back into a re-assessment of the noise-health relationships outlined in WP1 to determine if the findings from this work package confirm existing noise-health relationships and/or identifies new noise-health relationships that have not previously been explored.
The microdata sources we propose to use, Healthy Ireland and The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), offer ample scope for exploring a wider range of health and wellbeing outcomes that may be related to noise exposure than has been the case in previous studies. For the analysis, two cities will be chosen – Dublin and Cork – to represent the capital and a mid-sized city respectively. The Healthy Ireland and TILDA datasets have national coverage including substantial urban sub-samples which should be sufficient for the analysis.
The WP has five subtasks as follows:
Subtask 2.1 involves accessing and cleaning both the TILDA and Healthy Ireland datasets. The ESRI has access to both datasets and have already demonstrated that the TILDA dataset is suitable for linking with noise modelling data. Permission has been sought to link spatially-coded variables to Healthy Ireland.
Subtask 2.2 involves assigning receiver points to the facades of all buildings in both cities, and running the new CNNOSSOS-EU noise model to generate noise exposure levels at exposed building facades using Predictor software. This involves gathering and sorting the required data for noise modelling including traffic flow, composition, and speed data as well as building height and geometry data, among others.
Subtask 2.3 will merge noise data at receiver points with TILDA and Healthy Ireland microdata within a GIS platform for two Irish cities (Dublin and Cork). Prof. Sean Lyons (ESRI), Dr. Anne Nolan (ESRI) and Prof. Enda Murphy (UCD) have an ongoing pilot project that provides proof of concept for identifying relevant health and wellbeing variables from existing TILDA microdata and linking them with Geodirectory building data and noise modelling data.
Subtask 2.4 is concerned with applying quantitative techniques (such as logistic regression modelling) to identify and measure causal relationships between relevant microdata and wellbeing variables, controlling for a wide range of potential confounding socioeconomic and behavioural factors. TILDA and Healthy Ireland include a rich set of self-reported and objective indicators that may be related to noise exposure, including detailed metrics on cardiovascular disease, sleep problems, cognitive function and generalised well-being.
Subtask 2.5 will identify noise-health hotspots and explore the application of modelled relationships to local Census of population data to extract local disease burden information. This analysis will be compared for both cities (Dublin and Cork). The aim will be to locate specific noise-health hotspots in cities which can be used by practitioners to identify areas in need of targeted noise mitigation responses.
This WP aims to provide city-based analysis to ENHANCE THE EVIDENCE BASE on the casual relationships between noise exposure and health and wellbeing outcomes. It will combine existing microdata on health outcomes and potential confounding socioeconomic factors with data on predicted noise exposures to explore links between noise exposure and negative health and wellbeing outcomes. In this sense, the result of this work package will also feed directly back into a re-assessment of the noise-health relationships outlined in WP1 to determine if the findings from this work package confirm existing noise-health relationships and/or identifies new noise-health relationships that have not previously been explored.
The microdata sources we propose to use, Healthy Ireland and The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), offer ample scope for exploring a wider range of health and wellbeing outcomes that may be related to noise exposure than has been the case in previous studies. For the analysis, two cities will be chosen – Dublin and Cork – to represent the capital and a mid-sized city respectively. The Healthy Ireland and TILDA datasets have national coverage including substantial urban sub-samples which should be sufficient for the analysis.
The WP has five subtasks as follows:
Subtask 2.1 involves accessing and cleaning both the TILDA and Healthy Ireland datasets. The ESRI has access to both datasets and have already demonstrated that the TILDA dataset is suitable for linking with noise modelling data. Permission has been sought to link spatially-coded variables to Healthy Ireland.
Subtask 2.2 involves assigning receiver points to the facades of all buildings in both cities, and running the new CNNOSSOS-EU noise model to generate noise exposure levels at exposed building facades using Predictor software. This involves gathering and sorting the required data for noise modelling including traffic flow, composition, and speed data as well as building height and geometry data, among others.
Subtask 2.3 will merge noise data at receiver points with TILDA and Healthy Ireland microdata within a GIS platform for two Irish cities (Dublin and Cork). Prof. Sean Lyons (ESRI), Dr. Anne Nolan (ESRI) and Prof. Enda Murphy (UCD) have an ongoing pilot project that provides proof of concept for identifying relevant health and wellbeing variables from existing TILDA microdata and linking them with Geodirectory building data and noise modelling data.
Subtask 2.4 is concerned with applying quantitative techniques (such as logistic regression modelling) to identify and measure causal relationships between relevant microdata and wellbeing variables, controlling for a wide range of potential confounding socioeconomic and behavioural factors. TILDA and Healthy Ireland include a rich set of self-reported and objective indicators that may be related to noise exposure, including detailed metrics on cardiovascular disease, sleep problems, cognitive function and generalised well-being.
Subtask 2.5 will identify noise-health hotspots and explore the application of modelled relationships to local Census of population data to extract local disease burden information. This analysis will be compared for both cities (Dublin and Cork). The aim will be to locate specific noise-health hotspots in cities which can be used by practitioners to identify areas in need of targeted noise mitigation responses.
WP 3 – Quantifying the burden of disease from environmental noise in Ireland:
The aim of WP3 is to provide a national benchmark study of the burden of disease from environmental noise in Ireland; it will be the first of its kind in Ireland to benchmark the disease burden from environmental noise.
The WP has three subtasks:
Subtask 3.1 involves a systematic analysis of current approaches internationally for estimating the burden of disease from environmental noise. In particular, the subtask will assess the data requirements (health statistics, population data etc.) for any such assessment, the range of quantitative techniques utilised, and the degree of error that may result from related calculations.
Subtask 3.2 will assess the appropriateness of the various approaches for the Irish context including the relative availability of data for Ireland, and the potential for similar quantitative techniques to be utilised. In this regard, specific attention will be paid to WHO approaches that have been utilised for other European nations to estimate different disease burdens e.g. annoyance, sleep disturbance, cardiovascular disease, tinnitus, etc.
Subtask 3.3 involves producing an assessment of the disease burden for core noise-health relationships such as sleep disturbance, annoyance, cardio-vascular disease, tinnitus, and cognitive impairment in children. It is envisaged that the Irish disease burden will be outlined in terms of DALYs (disability-adjusted-life-years) - a standardised measure utilised by the WHO for disease estimation). The end result will be a detailed estimation of the prevalence of noise-health related disease burden for Ireland.
The aim of WP3 is to provide a national benchmark study of the burden of disease from environmental noise in Ireland; it will be the first of its kind in Ireland to benchmark the disease burden from environmental noise.
The WP has three subtasks:
Subtask 3.1 involves a systematic analysis of current approaches internationally for estimating the burden of disease from environmental noise. In particular, the subtask will assess the data requirements (health statistics, population data etc.) for any such assessment, the range of quantitative techniques utilised, and the degree of error that may result from related calculations.
Subtask 3.2 will assess the appropriateness of the various approaches for the Irish context including the relative availability of data for Ireland, and the potential for similar quantitative techniques to be utilised. In this regard, specific attention will be paid to WHO approaches that have been utilised for other European nations to estimate different disease burdens e.g. annoyance, sleep disturbance, cardiovascular disease, tinnitus, etc.
Subtask 3.3 involves producing an assessment of the disease burden for core noise-health relationships such as sleep disturbance, annoyance, cardio-vascular disease, tinnitus, and cognitive impairment in children. It is envisaged that the Irish disease burden will be outlined in terms of DALYs (disability-adjusted-life-years) - a standardised measure utilised by the WHO for disease estimation). The end result will be a detailed estimation of the prevalence of noise-health related disease burden for Ireland.
WP 4 – From Knowledge to Practice
This WP focuses on translating KNOWLEDGE TO ACTION through subtasks designed to ‘noise-health check’ policy and practice through the provision of effective tools and design guidance. The overall objective of this WP is to translate the knowledge gained through WPs 1-3 into concrete policy and practice recommendations.
Subtask 4.1. will develop a ‘how to’ guide for policymakers which will provide guidance on how noise-health considerations can be integrated into key relevant areas of related policy including: (1) Health; (2) Environment; (3) Transportation, and (4) Planning. The ‘How To’ Guide will be a key deliverable for the dissemination of project findings to our core audiences. The WP also includes the delivery of a final project report, synthesis report and summary research findings, which will include a broader series of policy and practice recommendations. Post-project dissemination will include Continuing Professional Development workshops that will be of educational benefit to policymakers and practice professionals.
This WP focuses on translating KNOWLEDGE TO ACTION through subtasks designed to ‘noise-health check’ policy and practice through the provision of effective tools and design guidance. The overall objective of this WP is to translate the knowledge gained through WPs 1-3 into concrete policy and practice recommendations.
Subtask 4.1. will develop a ‘how to’ guide for policymakers which will provide guidance on how noise-health considerations can be integrated into key relevant areas of related policy including: (1) Health; (2) Environment; (3) Transportation, and (4) Planning. The ‘How To’ Guide will be a key deliverable for the dissemination of project findings to our core audiences. The WP also includes the delivery of a final project report, synthesis report and summary research findings, which will include a broader series of policy and practice recommendations. Post-project dissemination will include Continuing Professional Development workshops that will be of educational benefit to policymakers and practice professionals.
