AN INTERACTIVE noise and air pollution map shows the areas of Basingstoke which are most and least affected.

The map can be filtered to show different types of noise pollution, including road noise and rail noise, and is colour coded to reflect how severe the pollution is.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the areas closest to major roads - in Basingstoke, the M3 and the ring road, followed by Winchester Road, the A33, the A340, the A339 and the A30 - experience the highest levels of noise pollution.

This makes the Viables, Hatch Warren and Beggarwood some of those worst affected areas - with noise levels of up 75dB.

One the other end of the scale are areas including Old Basing and Lychpit, South View, and Winklebury.

Strategic noise maps and action plans are required to be produced every five years. The noise maps are produced using detailed three-dimensional geographic models of England.

The three-dimensional data is overlaid with transport models of relevant parts of the road and railway network, which details vehicle types, speed, etcetera.

This data is loaded into sophisticated calculation software which implements a calculation algorithm to calculate the levels of noise generated at and propagated from the transport network.

Want to see how your area fares? You can view the map here: http://www.extrium.co.uk/noiseviewer