Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Current State-of-the-Art and New Directions in Strategic Environmental Noise Mapping

  • Noise Pollution (PHT Zannin, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Pollution Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Environmental noise mapping has the potential to act as a powerful resource for policymakers as a decision support tool for the mitigation of the negative effects of environmental noise pollution and its impact on public health. The aim of this paper is to review current state-of-the-art developments in how the strategic noise mapping (SNM) process has progressed at the EU level since the introduction of the Environmental Noise Directive (END) in 2002. Reviewing such developments is important because of the relevance of SNM to public health. In this regard, the development of a new standardized noise calculation method (i.e. CNOSSOS-EU) is also considered, as well as the future potential for noise mapping and the impact of technology on the development of noise pollution assessment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Lden averages the noise out over a 12-h day, a 4-h evening and an 8-h night, with 5 and 10 dB added to the evening and night figures respectively to account for generally lower background levels at those times [1]. 55 dB(A) Lden is considered by the WHO [4] as beyond recommended limits for the protection of public health in relation to road, rail and aircraft noise.

  2. Lnight averages the noise for the night period only.

  3. Burden of Disease is the estimation of total loss of life in years and total years of life lived with a disability culminating in an estimate of disease burden known as the Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) [11].

  4. These countries may yet submit this data.

  5. Greece and other South-Eastern European countries may yet submit relevant data. Nevertheless, delayed response is problematic.

  6. This trend also appeared in the context of Latvia. However, it is possible that estimates are accurate in this context since the total population of agglomerations were reported to have fallen from 767,261 to 641,007 between Rounds 2 and 3.

References

  1. European Commission. Green paper of the European Commission: future noise policy. COM. 1996;96:540.

    Google Scholar 

  2. European Commission. Evaluation of Directive 2002/49/EC relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise. Final Report, 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  3. King EA, Murphy E. Environmental noise—‘Forgotten’or ‘Ignored’pollutant? Appl Acoust. 2016;112:211–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. WHO. Noise guidelines for the European Region. Copenhagen, Denmark: WHO Regional Office for Europe; 2018.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Pershagen G, Van Kempen E, Casas M, Foraster M. P3410Traffic noise and ischemic heart disease—review of the evidence for the WHO environmental noise guidelines for the European region. Eur Heart J. 2017;38(suppl_1).

  6. European Environmental Agency. Managing exposure to noise in Europe (2017), (https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/human/noise/sub-sections/noise-in-europe-updatedpopulation-exposure).

  7. Seidler A, Hegewald J, Seidler AL, Schubert M, Wagner M, Dröge P, et al. Association between aircraft, road and railway traffic noise and depression in a large case-control study based on secondary data. Environ Res. 2017;152:263–71.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Beutel ME, Jünger C, Klein EM, Wild P, Lackner K, Blettner M, et al. Noise annoyance is associated with depression and anxiety in the general population-the contribution of aircraft noise. Plos one. 2016;11(5).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Pyko A, Eriksson C, Oftedal B, Hilding A, Östenson CG, Krog NH, et al. Exposure to traffic noise and markers of obesity. Occup Environ Med. 2015;72(8):594–601.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Hänninen O, Knol AB, Jantunen M, Lim TA, Conrad A, Rappolder M, et al. Environmental burden of disease in Europe: assessing nine risk factors in six countries. Environ Health Perspect. 2014;122(5):439–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. World Health Organisation. Burden of disease from environmental noise. Bonn: WHO and JRC.; 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  12. World Health Organisation. Guidelines for community noise. Geneva: World Health Organisation; 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Kluizenaar Y, Salomons EM, Janssen SA, van Lenthe FJ, Vos H, Zhou H, et al. Urban road traffic noise and annoyance: the effect of a quiet façade. J Acoustical Soc Am. 2011;130(4):1936–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Dratva J, Zemp E, Dietrich DF, Bridevaux P-O, Rochat T, Schindler C, et al. Impact of road traffic noise annoyance on health-related quality of life: results from a population-based study. Qual Life Res. 2010;19(1):37–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Bluhm G, Nordling E, Berglind N. Road traffic noise and annoyance—an increasing environmental health problem. Noise Health. 2004;6(24):43–9.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Halonen JI, Vahtera J, Stansfeld S, Yli-Tuomi T, Salo P, Pentti J, et al. Associations between nighttime traffic noise and sleep: the Finnish public sector study. Environ Health Perspect. 2012;120(10):1391–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Basner M, Müller U, Elmenhorst E-M. Single and combined effects of air, road, and rail traffic noise on sleep and recuperation. Sleep. 2011;34(1):11–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Griefahn B, Bröde P, Marks A, Basner M. Autonomic arousals related to traffic noise during sleep. Sleep. 2008;31(4):569–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Ndrepepa A, Twardella D. Relationship between noise annoyance from road traffic noise and cardiovascular diseases: a meta-analysis. Noise Health. 2011;13(52):251–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Bodin T, Albin M, Ardö J, Stroh E, Östergren P-O, Björk J. Road traffic noise and hypertension: results from a cross-sectional public health survey in southern Sweden. Environ Health. 2009;8(1):38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Babisch W, Wolf K, Petz M, Heinrich J, Cyrys J, Peters A. Associations between traffic noise, particulate air pollution, hypertension, and isolated systolic hypertension in adults: the KORA study. Environ Health Perspect. 2014;122(5):492–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Lim C, Kim J, Hong J, Lee S. The relationship between railway noise and community annoyance in Korea. J Acoust Soc Am. 2006;120(4):2037–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Seidler A, Wagner M, Schubert M, Dröge P, Pons-Kühnemann J, Swart E, et al. Myocardial infarction risk due to aircraft, road, and rail traffic noise: results of a case–control study based on secondary data. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2016;113(24):407.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Christensen JS, Raaschou-Nielsen O, Ketzel M, Ramlau-Hansen CH, Bech BH, Olsen J, et al. Exposure to residential road traffic noise prior to conception and time to pregnancy. Environ Int. 2017;106:48–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Gupta A, Gupta A, Jain K, Gupta S. Noise pollution and impact on children health. Indian J Pediatr. 2018;85(4):300–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Skrzypek M, Kowalska M, Czech EM, Niewiadomska E, Zejda JE. Impact of road traffic noise on sleep disturbances and attention disorders amongst school children living in Upper Silesian Industrial Zone, Poland. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2017;30(3):511.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Carey I, Anderson H, Atkinson R, Beevers S, Cook D, Dajnak D, et al. Traffic pollution and the incidence of cardiorespiratory outcomes in an adult cohort in London. Occup Environ Med. 2016;73(12):849–56.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Recio A, Linares C, Banegas JR, Díaz J. The short-term association of road traffic noise with cardiovascular, respiratory, and diabetes-related mortality. Environ Res. 2016;150:383–90.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Tobías A, Recio A, Díaz J, Linares C. Does traffic noise influence respiratory mortality? Eur Respir J. 2014;44(3):797–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Ashin M, Bilenko N, Friger M, Sergienko R, Sheiner E. 986: Is exposure to traffic-noise associated with the development of gestational diabetes mellitus? Am J Obstetr Gynecol. 2018;218(1):S583.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Roswall N, Raaschou-Nielsen O, Jensen SS, Tjønneland A, Sørensen M. Long-term exposure to residential railway and road traffic noise and risk for diabetes in a Danish cohort. Environ Res. 2018;160:292–7.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Clark C, Sbihi H, Tamburic L, Brauer M, Frank LD, Davies HW. Association of long-term exposure to transportation noise and traffic-related air pollution with the incidence of diabetes: a prospective cohort study. Environ Health Perspect. 2017;125(8):087025.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Christensen JS, Raaschou-Nielsen O, Tjønneland A, Overvad K, Nordsborg RB, Ketzel M, et al. Road traffic and railway noise exposures and adiposity in adults: a cross-sectional analysis of the Danish diet, cancer, and health cohort. Environ Health Perspect. 2015;124(3):329–35.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Oftedal B, Krog NH, Pyko A, Eriksson C, Graff-Iversen S, Haugen M, et al. Road traffic noise and markers of obesity—a population-based study. Environ Res. 2015;138:144–53.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Kim A, Sung JH, Bang J-H, Cho SW, Lee J, Sim CS. Effects of self-reported sensitivity and road-traffic noise levels on the immune system. PLoS One. 2017;12(10):e0187084.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Tzivian L, Dlugaj M, Winkler A, Weinmayr G, Hennig F, Fuks KB, et al. Long-term air pollution and traffic noise exposures and mild cognitive impairment in older adults: a cross-sectional analysis of the Heinz Nixdorf recall study. Environ Health Perspect. 2016;124(9):1361–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. Tzivian L, Jokisch M, Winkler A, Weimar C, Hennig F, Sugiri D, et al. Associations of long-term exposure to air pollution and road traffic noise with cognitive function—an analysis of effect measure modification. Environ Int. 2017;103:30–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Beutel ME, Jünger C, Klein EM, Wild P, Lackner K, Blettner M, et al. Noise annoyance is associated with depression and anxiety in the general population-the contribution of aircraft noise. PLoS One. 2016;11(5):e0155357.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Hansen J. Environmental noise and breast cancer risk? Scand J Work Environ Health. 2017;43(6):505–8.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Hegewald J, Schubert M, Wagner M, Dröge P, Prote U, Swart E, et al. Breast cancer and exposure to aircraft, road, and railway-noise: a case–control study based on health insurance records. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2017;43(6):509–18.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Sørensen M, Ketzel M, Overvad K, Tjønneland A, Raaschou-Nielsen O. Exposure to road traffic and railway noise and postmenopausal breast cancer: a cohort study. Int J Cancer. 2014;134(11):2691–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Roswall N, Raaschou-Nielsen O, Ketzel M, Overvad K, Halkjær J, Sørensen M. Modeled traffic noise at the residence and colorectal cancer incidence: a cohort study. Cancer Causes Control. 2017;28(7):745–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Sørensen M, Poulsen AH, Ketzel M, Dalton SO, Friis S, Raaschou-Nielsen O. Residential exposure to traffic noise and risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma among adults. Environ Res. 2015;142:61–5.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Tobollik M, Hintzsche M, Wothge J, Myck T, Plass D. Burden of disease due to traffic noise in Germany. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019;16(13):2304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Murphy E, King E. Environmental noise pollution: noise mapping, public health and policy. Burlington and San Diego: Elsevier; 2014.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  46. European Commission. Evaluation of Directive 2002/49/EC relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise. In: Second Implementation Review of the Environmental Noise Directive. The Centre for Strategy & Evaluation Services; 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  47. King EA, Murphy E, Rice HJ. Implementation of the EU environmental noise directive: lessons from the first phase of strategic noise mapping and action planning in Ireland. J Environ Manag. 2011;92(3):756–64.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Murphy E, King EA. Strategic environmental noise mapping: methodological issues concerning the implementation of the EU Environmental Noise Directive and their policy implications. Environ Int. 2010;36(3):290–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  49. Milieu Ltd. Review of the implementation of Directive 2002/49/EC on environmental noise for DG environment under service contract No. 070307/2008/510980/SER/C3; 2010.

  50. Licitra G. Out of the labyrinth: lights and shadows of noise mapping in CNOSSOS era, 2018. In: Proceedings of Euronoise; 2018.

    Google Scholar 

  51. de Vos P, Licitra G. Noise maps in the European Union: an overview. In: Noise mapping in the EU. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group; 2013. p. 285–310.

    Google Scholar 

  52. Centre for Strategy and Evaluation Services, Workshop working paper 1. The second implementation review of the END—emerging findings, September 23rd 2015, Brussels.

  53. Licitra G, Ascari E. Noise mapping in the EU: state of art and 2018 challenges. In: INTER-NOISE and NOISE-CON Congress and Conference Proceedings 2018 Dec 18 (Vol. 258, No. 7, pp. 714-718). Institute of Noise Control Engineering.

  54. Guarinoni M, Ganzleben C, Murphy E, Jurkiewicz K. Towards a comprehensive noise strategy. Brussels: European Union; 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  55. Paschalidou AK, Kassomenos P, Chonianaki F. Strategic noise maps and action plans for the reduction of population exposure in a Mediterranean port city. Sci Total Environ. 2019 Mar 1;654:144–53.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  56. Ruiz-Padillo A, Ruiz DP, Torija AJ, Ramos-Ridao Á. Selection of suitable alternatives to reduce the environmental impact of road traffic noise using a fuzzy multi-criteria decision model. Environ Impact Assess Rev. 2016;61:8–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Vogiatzis K. Assessment of environmental noise due to aircraft operation at the Athens International Airport according to the 2002/49/EC Directive and the new Greek national legislation. Appl Acoust. 2014;84:37–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Vogiatzis K. Strategic environmental noise mapping & action plans in Athens Ring Road (ATIIKI ODOS)-Greece. WSEAS Trans Environ Dev. 2011;7(10):315–24.

    Google Scholar 

  59. Vogiatzis K, Remy N. From environmental noise abatement to soundscape creation through strategic noise mapping in medium urban agglomerations in South Europe. Sci Total Environ. 2014;482:420–31.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  60. Bunn F, Zannin PH. Assessment of railway noise in an urban setting. Appl Acoust. 2016;104:16–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. Kephalopoulos, S, Marco P, and Fabienne AL. Common noise assessment methods in Europe (CNOSSOS-EU) Common noise assessment methods in Europe (CNOSSOS-EU), 2012.

  62. European Commission. Commission Directive (EU) 2015/996 of 19 May 2015 establishing common noise assessment methods according to Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. Official Journal of the European Union. 2015.

  63. Licitra G, Bolognese M, Palazzuoli D, Fredianelli L, Fidecaro F. Port noise impact and citizens’ complaints evaluation in rumble and mon acumen interreg projects. In 26th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, ICSV 2019 2019. Canadian Acoustical Association.

  64. Pallas MA, Dutilleux G. Experimental confrontation of medium-heavy vehicle noise emission to the CNOSSOS-EU prediction method. Proc. Euronoise, Heraklion, Greece. 2018 May 27.

  65. Peeters B, van Blokland G. The noise emission model for European road traffic. IMAGINE deliverable. 2007;11(11).

  66. Kok, A, van Beek, A. Amendments for CNOSSOS-EU. Description of issues and proposed solution RIVM Letter report 2019-0023, August 2019.

  67. Kok A. Flaws in the Cnossos calculation method and proposed solutions, 2019.

    Google Scholar 

  68. Schenone C, Pittaluga I, Borelli D, Kamali W, El Moghrabi Y. The impact of environmental noise generated from ports: outcome of MESP project. Noise Mapping. 2016;1:3(1).

    Google Scholar 

  69. Murphy E, King EA. An assessment of residential exposure to environmental noise at a shipping port. Environ Int. 2014 Feb 1;63:207–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  70. van Breeman T, editor. Good practice guide on port area noise mapping and management. Amsterdam: NoME Ports; 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  71. Bing M, Popp C. Exposure to noise in ports. 8th European Conference on Noise Control, EURONOISE 2009, Edinburgh Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics; 2009.

  72. Morretta M, Iacoponi A, Dolinich F. The port of Livorno noise mapping experience. J Acoust Soc Am. 2008;123(5):3137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  73. Marques G, Pitarma R. Noise mapping through mobile crowdsourcing for enhanced living environments. In: International Conference on Computational Science 2019 Jun 12. Cham: Springer. p. 670–9.

  74. Borelli D, Gaggero T, Rizzuto E, Schenone C. Holistic control of ship noise emissions. Noise Mapping. 2016;3(1).

  75. Badino A, Borelli D, Gaggero T, Rizzuto E, Schenone C. Airborne noise emissions from ships: experimental characterization of the source and propagation over land. Appl Acoust. 2016;104:158–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  76. Morel J, Marquis-Favre C, Gille LA. Noise annoyance assessment of various urban road vehicle pass-by noises in isolation and combined with industrial noise: a laboratory study. Appl Acoust. 2016;101:47–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  77. Vogiatzis K, Remy N. Strategic noise mapping of Herakleion: the aircraft noise impact as a factor of the Int. Airport relocation Noise Mapping. 2014;1:1(1).

    Google Scholar 

  78. Picaut J, Fortin N, Bocher E, Petit G, Aumond P, Guillaume G. An open-science crowdsourcing approach for producing community noise maps using smartphones. Build Environ. 2019;148:20–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  79. Murphy E, King EA. Smartphone-based noise mapping: integrating sound level meter app data into the strategic noise mapping process. Sci Total Environ. 2016;562:852–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  80. Bertrand A. Applications and trends in wireless acoustic sensor networks: a signal processing perspective. In: 2011 18th IEEE symposium on communications and vehicular technology in the Benelux (SCVT) 2011 Nov 22: IEEE. p. 1–6.

  81. Alsina-Pagès R, Socoró J, Alías F. Detecting anomalous noise events on low-capacity acoustic sensor in dynamic road traffic noise Mapping. In Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Proceedings 2018 Jan 18 (Vol. 2, No. 3, p. 136).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  82. Mietlicki F, Mietlicki C, Sineau M. An innovative approach for long term environmental noise measurement: RUMEUR Network in the Paris Region. In: Proceedings of the EuroNoise; 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  83. Botteldooren D, De Coensel B, Oldoni D, Van Renterghem T, Dauwe S. Sound monitoring networks new style. In: Acoustics 2011: Breaking new ground: Annual Conference of the Australian Acoustical Society 2011: Australian Acoustical Society. p. 1–5.

  84. SonYC—Sounds of New York City. Available online: https://wp.nyu.edu/sonyc (accessed on 14 September 2017).

  85. Szczodrak M, Kotus J, Kostek B, Czyżewski A. Creating dynamic maps of noise threat using PL-grid infrastructure. Archives of Acoustics. 2013;38(2):235–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  86. Zappatore M, Longo A, Bochicchio MA. Using mobile crowd sensing for noise monitoring in smart cities. In 2016 international multidisciplinary conference on computer and energy science (Splitech) 2016 Jul 13 (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

  87. Orga F, Alías F, Alsina-Pagès RM. On the impact of anomalous noise events on road traffic noise mapping in urban and suburban environments. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018;15(1):13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Architecture, Planning & Environmental Policy, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Enda Murphy, Jon Paul Faulkner & Owen Douglas

Authors
  1. Enda Murphy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jon Paul Faulkner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Owen Douglas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Enda Murphy.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Noise Pollution

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Murphy, E., Faulkner, J.P. & Douglas, O. Current State-of-the-Art and New Directions in Strategic Environmental Noise Mapping. Curr Pollution Rep 6, 54–64 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40726-020-00141-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40726-020-00141-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation