Noise pollution from railways; investigation of rail systems in terms of noise pollution regulations and land usage

Noise pollution caused by transportation has become a problem for metropolitan city life with increasing traffic volumes and the development of cities day by day. Noise pollution caused by transportation in European countries and Turkey has caused health problems as well as reducing the living standards of the people. In addition, with the effect of vibration along with noise pollution on railway lines, it can cause structural damage to the surrounding buildings. It also led to a change in the land use structure of the region after the railway lines were put into operation. Countries have continued their efforts to reduce noise pollution and vibration caused by transportation in their regulations and laws and to keep them at reasonable levels for the welfare of the people. It is necessary to carry out detailed studies in order to determine the problems caused by noise pollution, especially in the regions where industry and labor force are concentrated, and to solve these problems. The city of İzmir is one of the cities where the noise caused by the railway needs to be investigated. As a result of the studies carried out in the research area, the railway noise pollution map was created with Arcgis with the data obtained from 8 different points with the reverse distance weighting method. Afterwards, the effect of railway systems on the land use types of cities was also discussed, and the problem of noise pollution and vibration was examined for the period of 2000-2018. The negative effects of noise pollution and vibration caused by the railway in the hinterland of the suburban line in the study area and its effect on the land use type were investigated with the Environmental Noise Assessment and Management Regulation, the EU Environmental Noise Directive and the land cover data of the European Environment Agency.