STUDY ON NOISE ABSORPTION AND REFLECTION BEHAVIOUR UNDER DIFFERENT TYPES OF ROAD PAVEMENTS Kavita Dev 1 , Kafeel Ahmad 2 , Nasim Akhtar 3 1. INTRODUCTION Noise is considered a pollutant under the law of Prevention and Control of Pollution Act, 1981. The noise is frequently termed as an unwanted sound. Noise contains the unnecessary, obtrusive, unpleasant, annoying, or distracting sounds that affect the ability to enjoy the life or concentration of the mind in some way. Preventive actions are more practical than their removal to diminish the pollutants from the air [1-4]. According to a study which was confirmed by CSE‟s findings, examined data of two lakhs individuals in 50 cities in the world, comprising two Indian metropolitan cities also, Delhi and Mumbai. Unfortunately, the poorest noise pollution among all the cities was reported in Delhi. Residents of this city has the maximum number of hearing loss with respect to oldness. The study revealed that 64 per cent of hearing loss was caused by Noise pollution, which is a major issue of concern for health. The CSE findings also revealed that at the ITO intersection in Delhi recorded noise levels 106 decibels (dB) because of continuous beeping of vehicular and dense Jams [5-9]. Although, the standards projected by the Central Pollution Control Board for noise is set 50 dB for the silence zone and 55 dB for residential zone. Also, the CSE findings has exposed that India lacks of data on unnecessary sounds as well as monitoring capacity. Figure 1: Environmental pollution due to unwanted sound 1 Research scholar, Department of Civil Engineering., JMI 2 Professor Department of Civil engineering, JMI, New Delhi 3 Principal Scientist CSIR-CRRI, New Delhi International Journal of Latest Trends in Engineering and Technology Vol.(13)Issue(1), pp.042-047 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21172/1.131.08 e-ISSN:2278-621X Abstract- Pavement with higher noise absorption proficiency can significantly decrease the roadway transportation noise. There has been always a need to focus on this field to build a model for the roadway pavements without damaging its capacity to mitigate the noise. Many solutions exist in the market and several proprietary products are available. Also, there are diverse methods available to assess the noise generated by traffic. These methods are extensively using in various applications areas from noise assessments to innovative study. The methods employed generally based on the nature of the work and the materials on which acoustic performance will be evaluated. Therefore, in this paper we have studied various models and techniques that would be valuable in order to investigate future development of road traffic noise and its consequences under Indian road conditions. Some appropriate solutions for road surfaces beyond today’s technology are investigated. Key words: Traffic noise, Noise absorption, Normal incidence absorption coefficient (NIAC), Surface assessment, roadway pavements.