Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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Detailed noise maps available at the click of a mouse - Shaw
People in 23 urban areas can now see a snapshot of noise levels in their neighbourhoods thanks to a ground breaking initiative.
A new Defra website, launched by Environment Minister Jonathan Shaw today, provides maps showing the level of environmental noise from major industries, road and rail networks in 23 urban areas in England.
The information, covering 80,000 km of roads within urban areas, 28,000 km of major road networks and almost 5,000 km of railways, will be used to draw up action plans to reduce unreasonable levels of noise, where practical. In urban areas these will also include measures to protect designated quiet areas.
Users are able to search by postcode to access maps that show noise levels over an average 24 hour period, as well as during night time hours only. The site also includes information on the number of people exposed to these levels of noise. All member states have to produce maps under the EU Environmental Noise Directive.
Environment Minister Jonathan Shaw said:
"Factors like transport and industry are a necessary part of modern life. But we need to look at what further practical steps we can take to make people's lives more tranquil.
"These maps provide the most comprehensive snapshot yet of noise in our country, all at the click of a mouse. They will provide a spring board to go forward and tackle unnecessary and unreasonable noise pollution.
"We will use them to draw up action plans to reduce noise where practical from major roads and railways, as well as from urban areas. The plans will include measures to protect designated quiet areas from any increase in noise."
The mapping was carried out during 2006-07 in line with Defra's work to implement the directive. They incorporate the noise maps produced for the 18 English airports that were published last December.
The next stage of the Department's work to implement the directive will be to develop action plans. This will include a public consultation.
Notes to editors
1. The maps are available on the Defra website at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/noisemapping
(please note that the existing site - http://www.noisemapping.org
- will also re-direct to the new site)
2. EU Directive 2002/49/EC relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise ('the Environmental Noise Directive') was adopted on 25 June 2002 and transposed into UK law by way of the Environmental Noise (England) Regulations 2006 which came into force on 1 October 2006. The directive requires Member States to make and publish strategic noise maps for all major roads, major railways and major airports, as well as for agglomerations - large urban areas.
3. An agglomeration is defined by the regulations which implement the directive as a continuous urban area of more than 20 hectares with a population of more than 250,000 and a population density of more than 500 persons per square kilometre. The boundaries of the agglomeration do not necessarily match those of the local authority with the same name. In some cases the area mapped goes wider than the local authority area, in others areas have not been mapped because the population density was below the threshold level.
The 23 urban areas for which mapping results are available are:
Birkenhead
Blackpool
Bournemouth
Brighton
Bristol
Coventry
Hull
Leicester
Liverpool
London
Manchester
Nottingham
Portsmouth
Preston
Reading
Sheffield
Southampton
Southend
Teeside
The
Potteries
Tyneside
West Midlands
West Yorkshire
4. In the context of the directive, ambient or environmental noise is unwanted or harmful outdoor sound created by human activities, including noise emitted by means of transport - road traffic, rail traffic, air traffic - and from sites of industrial activity.
5. The maps have been made using computer modelling techniques, based on information from traffic flow, road, rail and vehicle data. The modelling produced noise level results as required by the directive.
The data required for calculating noise levels has been collated in partnership with various organisations including the Department for Transport, Highways Agency, Network Rail, various airport operators, and the Environment Agency.
6. The maps display two separate noise levels: Lden is an annual average 24 hour period (den = day, evening, night), where the evening and night levels have been weighted as required by the directive and Lnight represents night time only (defined as the period 23:00-07:00hrs).
7. There are already a number of EU directives in place to
control noise from transport sources including vehicles and tyres.
In addition:
Roads - the Highways Agency has a number of
policies in place to manage traffic noise from motorways and trunk
roads. For a number of years, the Agency has installed quieter
surfacing materials on new motorways and trunk roads and, when
major maintenance is carried out, on existing ones.
The Agency has also installed noise barriers at a number of locations where traffic noise has been considered to be a particular problem.
Rail - Good design of new trains, stations and track, together with modern maintenance procedures has helped reduce the noise produced by rail. The UK's rail vehicle fleet is already one of the quietest in Europe because of the operators' prior investment in quiet technologies.
Industry - Noise from industry is controlled through the implementation of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control regulations and the Environmental Protection Act.
8. The following gives a guide to typical noise levels:
Noise Description Level dB(A) 120 Threshold of pain
95 Pneumatic drill (un-silenced at 7m distance)
94 Fast Train (180 km/h, behind yellow line on station platform)
83 Heavy diesel lorry (40 km/h at 7m distance)
81 Modern twin-engine jet (at take-off at 152m distance)
70 Passenger car (60 km/h at 7m distance)
60 Office environment 50 Ordinary conversation 40 Library
35 Quiet bedroom 0 Threshold of hearing
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