Abstract Background: Samen district is located in the city of Mashhad and is most famous for housing the shrine of Imam Reza. Every year, 32 million pilgrims visit the Imam Reza shrine from inside and outside the country. Given that the question of noise pollution in this district which is one of the most travelled districts in Mashhad has been neglected compared to other forms of pollution, this study was conducted to investigate noise pollution by means of Geographic Information System in Samen district. Methods: In order to evaluate noise pollution in Samen district, Equivalent sound level, Sound pressure level, Noise pollution level and Traffic noise index, were measured in the summer and fall of 2016. The measurements were done using EPA guidelines and were analyzed. Geographic Information System was employed to prepare the zoning map of the measured equivalent sound level and maximum sound level. Results: The results showed that the values of equivalent sound level at all of the measured stations exceeded the noise pollution guidelines suggested by Iranian Environmental Protection Organization. The value of this parameter for 87.5% of stations was above 75 dB in summer. The noise pollution level value in 78% stations was higher than 82 dB in summer, and the value of this parameter in fall for 75% stations was higher than 79 dB. Conclusion: Given the results of the study, it became evident that the Samen district in Mashhad is suffering from a high degree of noise pollution. Noise maps due to being able to detect peoples’ habits of moving around the different parts of the city and at different times could facilitate computer assisted control of the urban traffic.

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