Noise mapping was initially developed in Europe and has been extensively applied and developed since the issuance of the Environmental Noise Directive [1]. For example, Birmingham produced a city-scale noise map in 2000 [2]; Britain published the world’s largest official noise map – ‘‘London Road Traffic Noise Map’’ in 2005; Madrid created a noise map using over 4000 points of noise-monitoring results [3]; Norway has used a noise map and population statistics to control noise [4]; Over 500 towns in Germany are equipped with noise maps [5]; and Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey have conducted noise map research using GIS [6–8]. In addition to the aforementioned European countries, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and the United States have also embarked on noise map research