A Position Paper of the European Environment Agency Working Group on the Assessment of Exposure to Noise
Presenting Noise Mapping Information to the Public
A Position Paper from the European Environment Agency Working Group on the Assessment of Exposure to Noise (WG-AEN)
1 INTRODUCTION TO AND PURPOSE OF THIS POSITION PAPER 3
2 RELEVANT REQUIREMENTS OF THE END 3
2.1 Deadlines 3
2.2 Information to and consultation with the public. 3
3 WORKSHOP ON PRESENTING NOISE MAPPING DATA TO THE PUBLIC HELD ON 5TH OCTOBER 2006 IN LONDON 3
4 IMPORTANT ISSUES ARISING FROM THE WORKSHOP AND WG-AEN’S RESPONSES TO THESE ISSUES 3
4.1 What do we want back from the public? 3
4.2 How should strategic noise mapping be linked to the action planning process? 3
4.3 What type of information and what level of detail should be provided to the public? 3
4.4 Overall outcome of the Workshop 3
5 WG-AEN’S TECHNICAL IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR THE TYPE OF INFORMATION AND THE LEVEL OF DETAIL TO BE PROVIDED TO THE PUBLIC 3
5.1 General 3
5.2 Presentation of the maps and associated data at local level 3
5.3 Presentation of the maps and associated data at national level 3
6 COMMUNICATION STRATEGY FOR MAKING MAPS AND ASSOCIATED DATA AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC 3
7 LINKS WITH OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 3
8 Membership of WG-AEN 3
9 Appendix 1 – The Environmental Noise Directive 3
10 Appendix 2 – The Directive on Public Access to Environmental Information 3
11 Appendix 3 - Workshop on Presenting Noise Mapping Data to the Public 3
1 INTRODUCTION TO AND PURPOSE OF THIS POSITION PAPER
1.1 Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 June 2002 relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise is commonly known as the Environmental Noise Directive and hereinafter is referred to as the ‘END’. The END, which is reproduced in full in Appendix 1 [1] of this Position Paper, requires Member States to undertake strategic noise mapping. It also refers to legislation regarding access to the information from strategic noise maps, since it requires “that the strategic noise maps … are made available and disseminated to the public in accordance with relevant Community legislation … and in conformity with Annex IV … to this Directive” (see Article 9.1 and Annex IV of the END).
1.2 The Aarhus Convention[2] has established the right of everyone to receive environmental information held by public authorities (“access to environmental information”). The parties to this important Convention, including all European Union (EU) Member States, are required to make the necessary provisions so that public authorities at national, regional or local level ensure that this right is upheld.
1.3 In line with the Aarhus Convention, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Directive 2003/4/EC, which is reproduced in full in Appendix 2 of this document. This act of adoption repealed Council Directive 90/313/EEC, which is referred to in Article 9.1 of the END, and transposed into EU law the rights established by this Convention.
1.4 Both the END (Article 9) and Directive 2003/4/EC establish two distinct aspects with regard to informing the public; (1) the availability of information upon request, and (2) the active and systematic dissemination of information to the public. It should be noted that this Position Paper focuses on the second of these aspects.
1.5 In respect of this, WG-AEN believes that there are two main purposes for developing effective strategies for the presentation of noise mapping information:
Purpose 1 is to inform the public of the results of strategic noise mapping at local and national level and at the same time explain how this information relates to them.
Purpose 2 is to start to engage the public in the process of developing action plans since these plans should be based on the results of the strategic noise maps and should in particular apply to the most important areas as established by the maps. The purpose of these action plans is to prevent and reduce environmental noise, where necessary and particularly where exposure levels can induce harmful effects on human health, and to preserve environmental noise quality where it is good, for example in so-called quiet areas (see Articles 1.1c and 8.1 of the END).
1.6 For the purposes of this Position Paper the public shall mean the general public as defined in Article 3(v) of the END[3] and not other interested parties and stakeholder groups e.g. technicians, transport engineers, politicians, planners, estate agents, housing landlords and property developers. However, WG-AEN recognises that the engagement of these interested parties and stakeholder groups may be crucial to the process of the development of effective action plans on noise and that many of these groups may need more detailed and more technical information than that normally provided to the general public.
1.7 This Position Paper contains ideas and suggestions that have been developed by WG-AEN which are intended to provide help, guidance and advice on good practice and associated strategies for presenting noise mapping information to the public at local and national levels for the purposes identified in section 1.5.
1.8 Many of these ideas and suggestions have been developed from presentations that were made and discussions that were held at the “Workshop on Presenting Noise Mapping Data to the Public” that took place in London in October 2006.
1.9 This Position Paper only deals with the presentation of strategic noise mapping and related information at local and national level as required by the END (see Article 9). It does not address the presentation of such information at European level.
1.10 Finally, it is emphasised that this Position Paper does not address the production of strategic noise maps, but merely how strategic noise maps and associated data may be presented and used to engage the public in the early stages of the action planning process.
Disclaimer: This Position Paper is not a Commission paper and is not legally binding. It contains technical ideas and suggestions, developed by a group of experts working on the assessment of exposure to noise, on how to inform the public of the results of strategic noise mapping and hence engage them in the early stages of action planning. It is emphasised that in this respect it is only the text and requirements of the END and of the Directive 2003/4/EC on access to environmental information that are legally binding at Community level.
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A Position Paper of the European Environment Agency Working Group on the Assessment of Exposure to Noise
2 RELEVANT REQUIREMENTS OF THE END
2.1 Deadlines
The END requires that Member States ensure that a first round of strategic noise mapping is completed by 30th June 2007 (see Article 7.1). It also requires that a first round of noise action plans are drawn up by 18th July 2008 and that these address certain priorities and apply in particular to the most important areas as established by strategic noise mapping (see Article 8.1). In addition, Member States shall ensure that the information from strategic noise maps is sent to the commission by 30th December 2007 (see Article 10.2 of the END). There is no deadline in the END for informing the public on the results of strategic noise mapping but this is addressed by the requirements of Directive 2003/4/EC (see Appendix 2, Articles 3 and 7).
2.2 Information to and consultation with the public.
In Recital 12 to the END it is stated that:
“In order to have a wide spread of information to the public, the most appropriate information channels should be selected.”
Also,”ensuring that information on environmental noise and its effects is made available to the public” is one of the key objectives of the END (see Article 1(b) of the END).
Elaborating on this, Article 9.1 of the END states that:
“Member States shall ensure that the strategic noise maps they have made, and where appropriate adopted, and the action plans they have drawn up are made available and disseminated to the public in accordance with Community legislation, in particular Council Directive 90/313/EEC of 7 June 1990 on the freedom of access to information on the environment, and in conformity with Annexes IV and V to this Directive, including by means of available information technologies”.
In Article 9.2 of the END it is required that:
“This information shall be clear, comprehensible and accessible. A summary setting out the most important points shall be provided.”
In addition to these obligations, Annex IV of the END sets out minimum requirements for strategic noise maps.
The following paragraphs of this Annex are particularly relevant to the presentation of the strategic noise maps to the public.
- paragraph 3 stipulating that "strategic noise maps for agglomerations shall put a special emphasis on the noise emitted by road traffic, rail traffic, airports, industrial activity sites including ports";
- paragraph 4 setting out that strategic noise mapping shall be used as a "source of information for citizens in accordance with Article 9 of the END";
- paragraph 6 indicating that the citizen must be given additional and more detailed information (additional and more detailed to that sent to the Commission), such as:
“- a graphical presentation,
- maps disclosing the exceeding of a limit value,
- difference maps, in which the existing situation is compared with various possible future situations,
- maps showing the value of a noise indicator at a height other than 4 m where appropriate.”
- paragraph 6 indicating also that “The Member States may lay down rules on the types and format of these maps.”
- paragraph 7 stating that "strategic noise maps for local (…) application must be made for an assessment height of 4 meters and the 5 dB ranges of Lden and Lnight as defined in Annex VI."
3 WORKSHOP ON PRESENTING NOISE MAPPING DATA TO THE PUBLIC HELD ON 5TH OCTOBER 2006 IN LONDON
In October 2006 WG-AEN, with support from the UK Government, convened a workshop on ‘Presenting Noise Mapping Data to the Public’. The purpose was to facilitate a debate on how best to present noise mapping data to the public and other stakeholders in order to inform them and to actively engage them in the start of the process of developing action plans. This workshop, which was held in London, provided an opportunity to share experiences, to learn about presentation techniques and to discuss possible presentation strategies at local and national level. The presentations given by experts from across Europe, and the results of subsequent group discussions, have formed an important basis for this WG-AEN Position Paper. The presentations, which contain examples of good practice in presenting noise mapping data to the public and other stakeholders, are available at the following website:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/noise/events/index.htm.
The reports on the group discussions that took place at the workshop are provided in Appendix 3 of this Position Paper.
4 IMPORTANT ISSUES ARISING FROM THE WORKSHOP AND WG-AEN’S RESPONSES TO THESE ISSUES
4.1 What do we want back from the public?
Before deciding what information is presented to the public and how it is to be presented it is necessary to consider what level of engagement is being sought.
In response, WG-AEN believes that when informing the public (see Purpose 1 in section 1.5) their interest must be secured. To achieve this there is a need to raise awareness and understanding of environmental noise exposure and its effects as requested by Article 1 of the END. It may also be appropriate to inform the public about the concepts and potential benefits of quiet areas at this stage and to ensure that the public appreciate that they are not only the receivers of environmental noise but often they are also the producers.
WG-AEN also believes that when engaging the public (see Purpose 2 in section 1.5) they need to be provided with the opportunity to become involved and actively engaged in the process of action planning. To achieve this level of engagement it will be important to show the public that significant reductions in the impact of environmental noise can be achieved, particularly in the longer term. The Commission website on noise[4] and the latest CALM II Strategy Paper ‘Research for a Quieter Europe in 2020’ dated September 2007[5] provide useful information in this respect. When presenting noise mapping information, it may be useful to explain to the public that EU law acknowledges the need for complementary actions by all administrative levels (European Community, Member States and local authorities) to achieve agreement on the noise problems and possible solutions.
4.2 How should strategic noise mapping be linked to the action planning process?
In respect of strategic noise maps, the END firstly requires the mapping results to be made available and disseminated to the public. The public must also be consulted about the proposals for action plans which should be based on the results of strategic noise mapping and include information derived from the strategic noise maps. Annex V states the minimum requirements of the END applicable to the action plans in addition to the other requirements set out for action plans in Articles 1(c), 8 and 9. In summary:
• action plans must be prepared on the basis of strategic noise mapping results;
· action plans must be adopted "with a view to preventing and reducing environmental noise where necessary and particularly where exposure levels can induce harmful effects on human health and to preserving environmental noise quality where it is good".
• action plans must address most important areas as identified by strategic noise maps; and
• action plans must, in addition to other information set out in Annex V, include a summary of the results of the strategic noise mapping, an evaluation of the number of people exposed, an identification of the problems and situations that need to be improved.
In response, WG-AEN emphasises that the results of strategic noise mapping have to be used to engage the public as a main stakeholder in the subsequent action plan development process. In addition, WG-AEN believes that the public need to be informed about the uses and limitations of the results of noise mapping in order to ensure that their levels of expectation for the action planning stage are realistic and can be managed. For example, the public may need to be informed that although the implementation of the noise action plans should, where necessary, reduce their noise exposure a limited availability of funds could mean that this is likely to take time and would take place on a prioritised basis. Also, the public may need to be made aware that in some areas there may be a small increase in noise because of actions taken to reduce noise in other areas. In some locations a new noise source may become apparent simply because noise from other sources has been reduced.