Noise Levels in Plum Orchard, New Orleans, LA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
56 dBA
Average noise across Plum Orchard
Quiet office to normal conversation
1,960
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
47% of Plum Orchard residents
82 dBA
Loudest residential point
Food blender at arm’s length
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Plum Orchard 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
Colorblind friendlyoff
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 1,960 Plum Orchard residents, or 46.6%, live above that level. By land area, 55.5% of Plum Orchard is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Plum Orchard residents, grouped by direction from the center of Plum Orchard. Southern Plum Orchard carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern Plum Orchard carries the lowest. Just 34% of residents in Eastern Plum Orchard live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, roughly the same as the share in Southern Plum Orchard.
Central Plum Orchard
54.9 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
43% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Plum Orchard
53.8 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
34% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Plum Orchard
56.2 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
77% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Plum Orchard
59.9 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
33% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Plum Orchard
57.5 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
66% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Plum Orchard sounds about 53% louder than Eastern Plum Orchard to the human ear, a 6.1 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 Dwyer Rd do you need to be?
Dwyer Rd produces an estimated 56 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
56 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
165 ft
44 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
330 ft
37 dBA
Soft rainfall
660 ft
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 16% of Plum Orchard sits under tree canopy (about average for 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
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International (MSY) sits west of Plum Orchard. 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 Plum Orchard, particularly to the east, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Plum Orchard
The bar chart below shows the share of Plum Orchard residents in each noise band. About 49% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 11% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Plum Orchard Compares
Plum Orchard sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Plum Orchard's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with West Lake Forest, Read Blvd West, Dillard, and Fairgrounds.
Average noise level (dBA)
Plum Orchard's 55.6 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. Louisiana as a whole averages 50.7 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Plum Orchard because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 46.6% of Plum Orchard 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, 55.5% of Plum Orchard's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Louisiana average of 28.9% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Plum Orchard
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 Dwyer Rd 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 16% of Plum Orchard is under tree cover (about average for neighborhoods), and the dominant land cover is low-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. Louis Armstrong New Orleans International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the west. Neighborhoods to the east 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.
