Noise Levels in Gresham-Southwest, Gresham, OR | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
52 dBA
Average noise across Gresham-Southwest
Quiet office to normal conversation
1,325
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
26% of Gresham-Southwest residents
64 dBA
Loudest residential point
Busy restaurant
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Gresham-Southwest at 100-meter resolution, combining road, aviation, and rail sources. Green areas measure below 45 dBA. Orange and red exceed the EPA's 55 dBA outdoor threshold linked to long-term health effects. Use the layer toggles to view each source on its own or all together.
Overall
Road
Rail
Aviation
Click the map to explore
35 dBa55 dBa (EPA limit)90+ dBa
3545557090
Quietest (dBA)Loudest
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What the numbers sound like
30 dBAWhisper
40 dBASoft rainfall
45 dBAQuiet suburban street at night
50 dBAQuiet office
55 dBAEPA outdoor threshold: light traffic 100 ft away
60 dBANormal conversation an arm's length away
65 dBABusy restaurant
70 dBAHighway traffic 50 ft away
80 dBACity bus interior
Population Above the EPA Outdoor Threshold
The EPA's 55 dBA outdoor reference level is a common benchmark for residential noise exposure, especially for activity interference, annoyance, and long-term community noise concerns. About 1,325 Gresham-Southwest residents, or 25.6%, live above that level. By land area, 30.8% of Gresham-Southwest is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Gresham-Southwest residents, grouped by direction from the center of Gresham-Southwest. Central Gresham-Southwest carries the highest population-weighted average; Northern Gresham-Southwest carries the lowest. Just 12% of residents in Northern Gresham-Southwest live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about two-thirds of the share in Central Gresham-Southwest.
Central Gresham-Southwest
54.2 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
23% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Gresham-Southwest
52.8 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
39% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Gresham-Southwest
49.4 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
12% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Gresham-Southwest
54.1 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
43% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Gresham-Southwest
52.0 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
16% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Central Gresham-Southwest sounds about 39% louder than Northern Gresham-Southwest to the human ear, a 4.8 dBA gap. Every 10 dBA roughly doubles perceived loudness. Within any of these directions, two homes a quarter mile apart can still differ by 10 or more dBA depending on how close they sit to a major highway.
How far back from do you need to be?
produces an estimated 64 dBA at its loudest centerline points. Noise drops logarithmically with distance, with the exact rate depending on what's between you and the road. Tree cover, walls, terrain, and pavement type all matter. At roughly a quarter mile back, traffic fades into the noise level of a soft rainfall.
At source
64 dBA
Busy restaurant
165 ft
51 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
330 ft
44 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
660 ft
37 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 23% of Gresham-Southwest sits under tree canopy (heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 41% is impervious surface like pavement and rooftops. Both are folded into the per-place decay rate above. Heavier canopy pulls noise down faster with distance; impervious surfaces slow the drop.
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Airport Noise
Portland International (PDX) sits northwest of Gresham-Southwest. The U.S. Department of Transportation models aviation noise around this airport from federal traffic data, and the model uses those federal measurements rather than synthetic predictions.
Blocks under the approach and departure paths carry combined road-plus-aviation noise, with some exceeding 65 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Gresham-Southwest, particularly to the southeast, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Gresham-Southwest
The bar chart below shows the share of Gresham-Southwest residents in each noise band. About 88% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 0% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Gresham-Southwest Compares
Gresham-Southwest sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Gresham-Southwest's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Mount Scott, Gresham-Northeast, Gresham-Gresham Butte, and Foster-Powell.
Average noise level (dBA)
Gresham-Southwest's 52.2 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. Oregon as a whole averages 52.9 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Gresham-Southwest because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 25.6% of Gresham-Southwest residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's in the middle of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 30.8% of Gresham-Southwest's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Oregon average of 24.2% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Gresham-Southwest
Distance from highways matters more than the neighborhood name. Two homes in the same zip code can differ by 20 dBA if one sits 100 meters from and the other 500 meters away. The model captures this at 100-meter resolution, so noise exposure changes block by block.
Tree canopy can help reduce modeled noise exposure. Roughly 23% of Gresham-Southwest is under tree cover (heavier than most neighborhoods), and the dominant land cover is medium-intensity developed land. Both are measured from federal USDA Forest Service and USGS satellite imagery at 30-meter resolution. Streets with 60% or higher canopy show 3 to 5 dBA lower noise than comparable streets with bare ground or pavement, which is why the per-place decay rate above already accounts for it.
Airport noise is directional. Portland International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the northwest. Neighborhoods to the southeast of downtown show no measurable contribution from the airport.
Sources & Methodology
The BestNeighborhood noise model is calibrated against nearly one million federal ground-truth measurements across four states. Road noise is computed from segment-level federal traffic data and propagated outward using physics-based acoustic decay, with attenuation rates that depend on the surrounding land cover.
All inputs are published federal datasets. Block-level noise is computed by combining road, rail, and aviation sound sources in the energy domain, the same physics used in professional environmental noise assessments. Read the full methodology.
