geo2web.com

The second major release of Live Maps for China is out and can be accessed at http://ditu.live.com. Congrats to our engineering team in China for getting this big update out - it represents many months of coding and brings some great improvements to map surfers in China. It also brings an API for developers and a localized SDK. Qingsong is a Program Manager on the maps team in Beijing and has this rundown on the release.

I am pleased to announce that VE China ‘Goliath” release is live on http://ditu.live.com. Here is a list of the new and improved areas-

• VE China API for developers, with VE China SDK documentation on Chinese MSDN.
• Pinyin support for map search query
• Business photos on the details page
• Transit - Improved route quality; better estimation of trip time; refreshed transit data for all 11 cities.
• Geocoding - Support Pinyin correction; geocoding match rate greatly improved
• New process for monthly data update leading to more timely and accurate maps and Business listings

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DEFRA Noise Maps (England)

Defra Map of Bristol day time road noise levels.

Noise maps only cover cities, but cover day noise (Lden) and night time (Lnight) noise levels
4 Layers are available - Road, Rail, Industry and Air noise.

The Noise Mapping England site currently supports the following urban areas only:

Birkenhead
Blackpool
Bournemouth
Brighton
Bristol
Coventry
Hull
Leicester
Liverpool
London
Manchester
Nottingham
Portsmouth
Preston
Reading
Sheffield
Southampton
Southend
Teeside
The Potteries
Tyneside
West Midlands
West Yorkshire

“The noise maps have been produced by Defra to meet the requirements of the Environmental Noise (England) Regulations 2006, and are intended to inform the production of noise action plans for large urban areas, major transport sources, and significant industrial sites in England.
Directive 2002/49/EC - more commonly known as the Environmental Noise Directive (END) - concerns noise from road, rail and air traffic and from industry. It focuses on the impact of such noise on individuals, complementing existing EU legislation which sets standards for noise emissions from specific sources. The END requires:
the determination of exposure to environmental noise, through noise mapping;
provision of information on environmental noise and its effects on the public;
adoption of action plans, based upon noise mapping results, which should be designed to manage noise issues and effects, including noise reduction if necessary;
preservation by the member states of environmental noise quality where it is good.”

The Interactive Maps can be found at:

http://noisemapping.defra.gov.uk/wps/portal/noise

Related News Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7403280.stm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1967803/Noise-pollution-map-warns-of-health-risks.html

Blog

http://bridgetfox.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/noise-mapping/

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