INSTURFACE - An MSCA-PF project

Contextualization

In the EU, at least 1 in 5 citizens are exposed to noise levels above the thresholds recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO)¹. Therefore, noise control is defined as a priority, from the Directive 2002/49/EC for assessment and management of environmental noise, to the EU Action Plan: 'Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil' that aims at reducing the share of people chronically disturbed by transport noise by 30%.

Population exposure to environmental noise, based on areas covered by strategic noise maps in 2017. EEA-33 (Turkey not included) Source: EEA Report No 22/2019 - Environmental noise in Europe — 2020

		Number of people exposed to L_den ≥ 55 dB (million)		Number of people exposed to L_night ≥ 50 dB (million)
		Reported	Estimated	Reported	Estimated
Inside urban areas	Road	50.6	81.7	33.8	57.5
	Rail	7.9	10.7	6.0	8.1
	Air	2.2	3.1	0.6	0.9
	Industry	0.3	0.8	0.2	0.4
Outside urban areas	Road	21.8	31.1	14.2	21.1
	Rail	10.4	10.9	8.7	9.0
	Air	0.8	1.1	0.4	0.4

Notes: Based on data submitted up until 1 January 2019 for the 2017 END submission of strategic noise mapping. Reported data refer to data submitted by countries and estimated data refer to data gap-filled because of incomplete reporting.

Noise definitions

L_den (day-evening-night noise level): the long-term average indicator designed to assess annoyance and defined by the Environmental Noise Directive (END). It refers to an A-weighted average sound pressure level over all days, evenings and nights in a year, with an evening weighting of 5 dB and a night weighting of 10 dB.
L_night (night noise level): the long-term average indicator defined by the END and designed to assess sleep disturbance. It refers to an A-weighted annual average night period of exposure.
High noise levels: defined in the Seventh Environment Action Programme as noise levels above 55 dB L_den and 50 dB L_night.

In this scenario, noise pollution is a growing concern in many urban areas, with transport noise having a significant impact on residents in densely populated regions. Existing solutions often fall short in effectively reducing this type of pollution. Metasurfaces can enable spatiotemporal modulation and transform how we control and manage sound. However, progress has been hindered by experimental challenges and limitations in current control algorithms. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the INTSURFACE project will develop a real-time, adaptive metasurface capable of spatiotemporal modulation. The project will draw on a range of theoretical and numerical frameworks, create machine learning-based control systems for the meta-surface, and ultimately build and test working prototypes.

Link to CORDIS:

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101209552

References:

[1] European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment, Noise impacts on health, Publications Office, 2015,