Healthy housing design for urban noise resilience: shielded sides and greenery in Stockholm

Background

Traffic noise is a major urban public health burden. In dense cities, source reduction remains essential but may be difficult to achieve rapidly or evenly. Housing design and greenery may act as complementary mitigation strategies, but their relative roles across exposure levels remain unclear.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study in Stockholm County using the 2023 Swedish National Environmental Health Survey linked to modelled residential road-traffic noise exposure. Analyses included 44,576 adults for high annoyance and 44,369 for high sleep disturbance. Noise was categorized as < 50, 50–54, 55–59, 60–64 and ≥65 dB LAeq,24h. A four-level typology combined shielded-side access and greenery: no shielded/no greenery, no shielded/greenery, shielded/no greenery, and shielded/greenery. Logistic regression estimated adjusted odds ratios, controlling for age, sex, education and household income.

Results

Higher road-traffic noise was associated with higher odds of both outcomes. Structural shielding showed the strongest and most consistent protective pattern. Within the same noise category, shielded-side access was linked to lower odds of high annoyance and high sleep disturbance, with odds ratios generally around 0.15–0.30 compared with dwellings without shielding or greenery. Among dwellings without shielding, greenery was linked to lower high annoyance at 50–54 dB, OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.43–0.92, and lower high sleep disturbance below 50 dB, OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.36–0.96. At higher exposure levels, greenery alone showed little consistent protective association.

Conclusions

The findings suggest a hierarchy of residential protection. Source reduction remains essential, structural shielding appears to be the key housing-level mitigation feature, and greenery may provide added benefit mainly at lower exposure levels. Urban noise policy should not treat greenery as a substitute for acoustic protection, but as a complementary element of healthy housing design.

Key messages

• Structural shielding of dwellings and bedrooms showed the most consistent protective association with traffic-noise-related annoyance and sleep disturbance across the full exposure range.

• Greenery may provide additional mitigation mainly at lower noise levels, but findings suggest that green qualities should complement, not replace, acoustic shielding in urban housing policy.