Southdowns was commissioned by Dar Al Handasah (Shair and Partners) (UK) Ltd (DAHC) to undertake an environmental noise and vibration impact assessment of a planned infrastructure upgrade of Doha Industrial Area. The upgrade of the Industrial Area comprised the redesign of the road network to improve traffic management in the Industrial Area and the installation of surface and ground water drainage facilities to provide a flood defence mechanism for the area. DAHC were responsible for the preparation of an Environmental Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) covering a number of environmental disciplines and were part of the wider Dar Group responsible for the detailed design of the infrastructure upgrade.
The noise and vibration impact assessment work undertaken by Southdowns included the acquisition of baseline noise and vibration data in, and in the vicinity of, the Industrial Area, the development of a road traffic noise model using Noisemap v5 to predict and assess the potential future noise impacts associated with the operation of the upgraded road network, and the identification of control measures to mitigate any significant adverse noise and vibration impacts predicted during the construction and operational phases of the infrastructure upgrade.
The noise and vibration survey work required the selection of unattended noise monitoring locations in areas where there was a juxtaposition of labour camps and industrial facilities not usually encountered in the UK.
Groundborne vibration impacts were calculated and assessed based on an empirical vibration propagation model developed from the acquisition of vibration data monitored across the Industrial Area.
The results of the noise and vibration monitoring were documented in a baseline acoustics report. The noise and vibration impact assessment was documented in a standalone technical acoustics report and summarised within the main body of the ESIA document.
