Cities fight traffic noise with a layered defence: a sound barrier that diffracts and blocks the direct line of sight from source to receiver, a vegetation buffer that softens and scatters high-frequency energy, and increasingly an active noise-cancellation (ANC) array that emits phase-inverted sound to destructively interfere with the leftover noise near the barrier. This simulation renders a live noise map on the ground plane showing how decibel levels fall off with distance and how each mitigation layer chips away at the exposure a resident actually experiences.
The World Health Organization's environmental noise guidelines recommend keeping average road-traffic exposure below 53dB Lden, since chronic exposure above that is linked to cardiovascular disease, sleep disturbance, and cognitive impairment in children — which is why the coloured noise map here is calibrated around the 45–85dB range cities actually measure.
A live 3D noise map of a city street cross-section, showing how a sound barrier, a vegetation buffer, and an active noise-cancellation speaker array combine to pull decibel levels down at a building behind the road.
Traffic noise decays with distance, is diffracted around barrier edges, softened by vegetation, and further reduced in a local zone by phase-inverted sound from an active cancellation array — each layer visible as colour shifts on the ground-plane noise map.
Adjust traffic noise level, barrier height, and receptor distance, then toggle the vegetation buffer and active noise cancellation array to see the read-out at the receptor marker change in real time.
The WHO recommends keeping average road-traffic exposure below 53dB Lden; a well-designed barrier plus active cancellation can realistically claw back 15–20dB in the "quiet zone" closest to the array.