Journal of Urban Environmental Management

Spatial-statistical analysis of traffic noise pollution on Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani Highway in Mashhad: Study of the relationships between noise pollution status, traffic volume, and urban green space use

Articles in Press

Authors

Abolfazl Jamali 1
Nima Zolfaghari 2
Hadi Soltanifard 3

1 Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar

2 Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran

3 Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Hakim Sabzevari University

https://doi.org/10.48306/juem.2026.587095.1162
Abstract
Noise pollution is one of the environmental problems that has gained wider dimensions with the development of technology and industry and has harmful effects on the health of citizens. Urban traffic contributes significantly to noise pollution in metropolitan cities. Creating green spaces is known as an effective solution for reducing noise pollution. In this study, the sound level was measured on the Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani Highway in Mashhad and, while comparing it with environmental standards, a noise zoning map was prepared using the Ordinary Kriging interpolation method and Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW). To prepare the noise pollution zoning map, in addition to the 40 highway stations, 27 other stations around the highway were determined and the LAeq index was measured and the values were recorded. In the kriging method, the RMSE value is 6.2 and less than the RMSE value of 8.2 in the inverse weighting method, so the efficiency of the inverse weighting method is less than the kriging method. In another part of the research, the effect of different types of vehicles on noise pollution was examined through statistical tests. There is a positive correlation between the value of noise indices and the number of vehicles. The role of urban green space use in reducing and absorbing noise pollution was examined through statistical analysis using SPSS software. The results showed that the effects of green space on reducing pollution are positive and the extent of this effect varies depending on the differences in the characteristics of green space.

Keywords

Traffic noise pollution
green space
zoning
urban management
Mashhad
Journal of Urban Environmental Management

Articles in Press, Corrected Proof
Available Online from 17 October 2026

  • Receive Date 16 June 2026
  • Revise Date 28 August 2026
  • Accept Date 10 October 2026
  • First Publish Date 17 October 2026
  • Publish Date 17 October 2026

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