Unit 2 The UK Noise Environment

Question 1

Reason for World Health Organisation published ‘Guidelines for Community Noise’.

Answer 1

• Prepared as a practical response to the need for action on community noiseat the local and national level
• Later supplemented by the ‘Night Noise Guidelines’ forEurope 2009⁸.
• 2018 the WHO Regional Office for Europe published the ‘Environmental Noise Guidelines’ for the European Region based on a growing understanding of health impacts of exposure to environmentalnoise

Question 2

How are values derived for WHO GfCN

Answer 2

When multiple adverse health effects were identified for a given environment, the guideline values were set at the level of the lowest adverse health effect (the critical health effect).

𝐿Aeq,T for “daytime” and “night-time” are 16 hours and 8 hours, respectively.

Guideline values for evening and night-time should be between 5 and 10 dB lower than for a 12 hour daytime period

Question 3

following adverse effects That WHO GfCN measure against

Answer 3

The available knowledge of the adverse effects of noise on health was sufficient to propose guideline values for community noise against the following adverse effects

1. Annoyance.
2. Speech intelligibility and communication interference.
3. Interference with cognitive interactions.
4. Sleep disturbance (later specifically addressed and updated in the Night Noise Guidelines for Europe 2009).
5. Hearing impairment.

Question 4

WHO guideline values for community noise were proposed for each environment

Answer 4

The different critical health effects are relevant to specific environments, and guideline values for community noise were proposed for each environment. These are

1. Dwellings, including bedrooms and outdoor living areas.
2. Schools and preschools, including rooms for sleeping and outdoor playgrounds.
3. Hospitals, including ward and treatment rooms.
4. Industrial, commercial shopping and traffic areas, including public addresses, indoors and outdoors.
5. Ceremonies, festivals and entertainment events, indoors and outdoors.
6. Music and other sounds through headphones.
   
   1. Impulse sounds from toys, fireworks and firearms.
7. Outdoors in parkland and conservation areas.

Question 5

The Night Noise Guidelines for Europe 2009

Answer 5

• Developed to provide expertise and scientific advice in developing future standards in the area of night noise exposure control and surveillance.
• Table 5.1 presents guideline values with the intention ofeffectsofnightnoiseinEurope.
• Sleep quality and disturbance thresholds are given as 42 dB 𝐿𝐴max,inside and 42 dB 𝐿night,outside

Question 6

2018 WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region

Answer 6

The 2018 WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region¹⁰ set health-based recommendations on average environmental noise exposure of five relevant sources of environmental noise

• road traffic noise (53 dB 𝐿den, 45 dB 𝐿night),
• railway noise (54 dB 𝐿den, 44 dB 𝐿night),
• aircraft noise (45 dB 𝐿den, 40 dB 𝐿night),
• wind turbine noise (45 dB 𝐿den, no recommendation is made for average night noise exposure as the quality of evidence of night-time exposure to wind turbine noise is too low) and
• leisure noise (70 dB 𝐿Aeq,24hr).

Question 7

five significant developments in the 2018 version of WHO noise guidelines for europe

Answer 7

Compared to previous WHO guidelines on noise, there are five significant developments in the 2018 version :

• stronger evidence of cardiovascular and metabolic effects of environmental noise;
• inclusion of new noise sources, namely wind turbine noise and leisure noise, in addition to noise fromtransportation (aircraft, rail and road traffic);
• use of a standardized approach to assess the evidence;
• the systematic reviews of evidence define the relationship between noise exposure and risk of health outcome; and
• use of long-term average noise exposure indicators to better predict adverse health outcomes,compared to short-term noise exposure measures.

Question 8

EU Environmental Noise Directive

Answer 8

Motivated by the EU Green Paper “Future Noise Policy”, published in 1996, which suggested that some 80 million EU inhabitants (20%) lived in unacceptably high noise level situations.

To improve this, proposals were put forward for a Directive on Environmental Noise to cover land transport, noise near airports and industrial noise.

Question 9

Purpose of The Environmental Noise Directive (2002/49/EC).

Answer 9

aims to “define a common approach intended to avoid, prevent or reduce on a prioritised basis the harmful effects, including annoyance, due to the exposure to environmental noise”.

Aimed to provide a basis for developing EU measures to reduce the noise emitted by major sources; in particular road and rail vehicles and infrastructure, aircraft, outdoor and industrial equipment and mobile machinery.

Question 10

The Environmental Noise Directive (2002/49/EC) requirements

Answer 10

• the determination of exposure to environmental noise, through noise mapping;
• provision of information on environmental noise and its effects on the public;
• adoption of action plans, based upon noise mapping results, which should be designed to manage noiseissues and effects, including noise reduction if necessary;
• preservation by the member states of environmental noise quality where it is good.
• It is important to note, however, that the present Directive does not set binding limit values, nor does it prescribe the measures to be included in the action plans thus leaving those issues at the discretion ofthe competent authorities.

Question 11

END noise maps initial objective

Answer 11

The initial objective was to produce noise maps of Europe, using harmonised indicators and prediction models and to follow this with “action plans” for noise reduction.

• Day, Evening, Night noise level 𝐿den is used for this

By 2012, strategic maps were required for areas of lower population (100 000) and fewer road passages (3 million) and train passages (30 000).

-These maps are to be reviewed every 5yars,

Question 12

UK Transposition of END

Answer 12

The 2002 Environmental Noise Directive was transposed into English law on 1 October 2006 as The Environmental Noise (England) Regulations 200613.

As noise is a devolved issue, Wales14, Scotland15 and Northern Ireland16 have introduced their own legislation to implement the directive.

In general, each set of regulations followed the requirements of END with some additional features and target dates.

Question 13

END noise mapping

Answer 13

END requires European Member States to establish the number of people exposed to A-weighted noise levels above 55 dB 𝐿_den and 50 dB 𝐿_night from major roads, major railways, major airports and in agglomerations (large urban areas).

Question 14

END noise mapping aims

Answer 14

Noise maps aim

(a) to provide an overview of the ambient noise environment in large urban areas and from major transport sources in England (the most recent being in 2017¹⁷)
(b) to allow the determination of the number of people affected by different levels of ambient noise, the source of that noise (i.e. road, rail, air or industry) and
(c) the locations of the people affected.

Question 15

Noise Action Plans

Answer 15

The Environmental Noise (England) Regulations 2006 required noise action plans to be developed on a five-year rolling programme.

The purpose of Noise Action Plans is to

• assistinanditseffects
• including noise reduction, if necessary, in the context of government policy on sustainable development.

Noise Action Plans are based on the results of the strategic noise maps

Question 16

What do majority of noise action plans relate to

Answer 16

The majority of Action Plans relate to areas for which noise maps have been published, which include the 23 largest urban areas in England, and major road and rail links between these urban areas.

The Action Plans represent an overarching approach to managing environmental noise.

• sets out a strategic intent for managing noise, but do not propose any specific noise mitigation measures at this stage.
• It is intended that any noise measures will be identified and agreed ata local level.

Question 17

what does the Noise Policy Statement England do

Answer 17

Noise Policy Statement for England (NPSE)²⁰, published in March 2010, commits the government in England to including noise considerations in policy making across departments.

It applies to all forms of environmental, neighbour and neighbourhood noise

Question 18

3 key aims of NPSE

Answer 18

• avoid significant adverse impacts on health and quality of life;
• mitigate and reduce to a minimum, other adverse impacts on health and quality of life; and
• where possible, contribute to the improvement of health and quality of life.

Question 19

NPSE effect level

Answer 19

NPSE adopted the following concepts, to help consider whether noise is likely to have ‘significant adverse’ or‘adverse’ effects on health and quality of life :

• NOEL – No Observed Effect Level

This is the level below which no effect can be detected. In simple terms, below this level, there is no detectable effect on health and quality of life due to noise.

• LOAEL – Lowest Observed Adverse Effect Level

This is the level above which adverse effects on health and quality of life can be detected.

• SOAEL – Significant Observed Adverse Effect Level

This is the level above which significant adverse effects on health and quality of life occur.

Question 20

Quiet Area action plans

Answer 20

END identified the importance of so-called “Quiet Areas” both in agglomerations and in rural areas.

• Member States need to produce action plans to protect these areas

Question 21

draft guidance template for Action Plans

Answer 21

recent guidance has departed from this purely mechanistic approach to a process of using local knowledge toidentify ‘quiet areas’.

In the draft guidance template for Action Plans it asks that the Competent Authroity to liaise with LAs inagglomeration to:

• Consider available local information and the results of the noise maps,
• Determine whether any open space should be formally identified as a Quiet Area,
• The process to work alongside any existing open space management policies.

Question 22

requirements of an Quiet Area re END

Answer 22

For a space to be formally identified as a Quiet Area it must provide significant and important benefits as a result of being ‘quiet’. Such spaces will probably be already regarded as special and already they may be managed top reserve their quietness

Question 23

What should the planning system do in the opinion of NPPF

Answer 23

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)²², published in March 2012, is used as the guideline for current planning policy.

According to NPPF, the planning system should prevent permitted and new developments from causing noise pollution and from being affected by it

Question 24

Reasons for ProPG

Answer 24

Professional Practice Guidance on Planning and Noise (ProPG) has been produced to provide practitioners with guidance on the management of noise within the planning system in England for residential developments.

The internal noise guidelines in ProPG are based on those contained in BS8233:2014

Reasons for ProPG