Mapping built-environment exposure to night-time road traffic noise in Malta

Abstract

Strategic noise maps support environmental policy but may obscure how exposure relates to the built environment, socioeconomic conditions and road network structure. This study integrates Malta’s 2021 night-time road traffic noise contours with 142,681 building footprints, local council socioeconomic indicators and a road network derived from a historical OpenStreetMap snapshot. Of the building footprints, 13,773 (9.65%) intersected contours at or above 50 dB, representing 1.92 km2 (6.26%) of the national building-footprint area. Socioeconomic disadvantage showed no strong monotonic relationship with exposure across 68 local councils, although higher noise exposure was concentrated in a subset of disadvantaged localities. At 500 m, the road length in the top centrality decile was associated with the exposed building count (Spearman ? = 0.614) and footprint share (? = 0.604). Priority screening identified 23 cells in 15 clusters where high road centrality coincided with a greater mapped building-footprint area in higher noise classes. The results show how strategic noise mapping can support more targeted environmental action by identifying administrative divisions (local councils) where socioeconomic disadvantage coincides with higher levels of noise exposure and transport corridors where greater building exposure overlaps with structurally important roads.