HowNoisy

Provenance

Data sources

HowNoisy only uses official public datasets and open geographic information. Every source is queried live for the point you search, and each result lists exactly which ones were used.

What each result checks

  • Official strategic noise mappingChecked on every search
  • Road networkChecked on every search
  • RailwaysChecked on every search
  • Airports and aircraft noiseChecked on every search
  • Industrial land useChecked on every search
  • Nightlife and leisure venuesChecked on every search

If a source does not respond, that category is reported as unavailable for that result rather than estimated.

Official noise maps

MITECO / SICA — Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition, strategic noise maps (3rd round) for major roads, railways, airports and agglomerations, Lden and Ln. Queried through the ministry's official map service. © MITECO, CC BY 4.0.

European Environment Agency — official noise contours reported by each country under the Environmental Noise Directive (latest round reported), for road, rail, aircraft and industry, Lden and Lnight. © EEA.

Generalitat Valenciana (Institut Cartogràfic Valencià) — 4th-round strategic noise maps for regional roads and railways, and the register of municipal acoustic plans and acoustically saturated zones.

Generalitat de Catalunya — 4th-round agglomeration maps, Barcelona street-segment maps and the acoustic capacity map. Gobierno de Navarra (IDENA) — 4th-round maps and zoning of the Pamplona area; service provided by the Government of Navarre, CC BY 4.0. Ayuntamiento de Madrid — acoustic areas 2018.

Building, measurements and nightlife

Dirección General del Catastro — construction year, floors and uses of the building at the point.

Municipal noise monitors — Ayuntamiento de Madrid (fixed network, monthly Ld/Le/Ln) and Ajuntament de València (Russafa sensors, daily), CC BY 4.0.

Licensed terraces — Ayuntamiento de Madrid (census of terraces) and Ajuntament de Barcelona (terrasses vigents), CC BY 4.0. Acoustically saturated zones — Ajuntament de València.

Open geographic data

OpenStreetMap — roads, railways, airports, industrial land and nightlife venues around the point, via the Overpass API. © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0.

Address search

CartoCiudad (Spanish National Geographic Institute, IGN) for Spanish addresses, down to the street number; Nominatim / OpenStreetMap for the rest of the world and to identify the country of each point.

What HowNoisy never uses

Property portals and booking platforms, listings, prices, reviews, seller or owner information, crowdsourced opinion and any scraped proprietary source. HowNoisy assesses geographic locations, not people or sellers.

Reference year and retrieval date

Each source records the reference year of the dataset separately from the date HowNoisy retrieved it. A dataset with an earlier reference year is never presented as a current measurement.