Environmental noise

Setting the scene

Noise exposure from transport sources and industry can lead to annoyance, stress reactions, sleep disturbance, and increases in the risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Environmental noise causes approximately 16 600 cases of premature death in Europe^[1] each year, with almost 32 million adults estimated to suffer annoyance and over 13 million adults estimated to suffer sleep disturbance (ETC-ACM, 2016) ^[2]. The WHO (2011) identified noise as the second most significant environmental cause of ill health, the first being air pollution (AIRS_PO3.1, 2017). The 7th EAP (EU, 2013) includes an objective to significantly decrease noise pollution by 2020, moving closer to WHO recommended levels.

Policy targets and progress

The Environmental Noise Directive (END) is the main EU instrument through which land-based noise emissions are monitored and actions developed. It defines environmental noise as ‘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’ (EU, 2002). It places an obligation on EU Member States to assess noise levels by producing strategic noise maps for all major roads, railways, airports and urban areas^[3]. Based on these noise-mapping results, Member States must prepare action plans containing measures that address noise issues and their effects for those areas where the specific END indicator thresholds (55 dB averaged across the day, evening and night periods (L_den) and 50 dB averaged across the night period (L_night)) have been surpassed. The Directive neither sets limit values for noise exposure, nor prescribes measures for inclusion in the action plans. Finally, Member States are required to select and preserve areas of good acoustic environmental quality, referred to as ‘quiet areas’, in order to protect the European soundscape.

High environmental (i.e. outdoor) noise levels are defined in the 7th EAP as noise levels for L_den above 55 dB and for L_night above 50 dB.

During the night, high outdoor noise levels can cause sleep disturbance, such as body movements and wakening, starting at L_night levels below 40 dB, and with effects on the cardiovascular system that become apparent above 55 dB. All these impacts can contribute to premature mortality (WHO, 2009). The WHO established a night-time outdoor noise guideline for L_night of 40 dB with the aim of protecting the public, including vulnerable groups such as children, the chronically ill and the elderly. An outdoor noise L_night value of 55 dB was recommended as an interim target for countries where the night-time noise guideline cannot be achieved in the short term and where policymakers adopt a stepwise approach. The WHO night-time noise guideline is stricter than the L_night threshold of 50 dB set under the END, providing a higher level of protection for human health. However, assessments cannot be made by comparing noise levels in the EU with WHO recommended levels, as Member States are not obliged to report this information.

Figure 1 provides an overview of the number of people exposed to levels of environmental noise in the EU within and outside urban areas that are above the daily (24 hour period) noise indicator threshold set by the END. The major source of noise pollution (measured in terms of number of affected people), both inside and outside urban areas, is road traffic. Noise from trains and aircraft has a much lower impact in terms of overall population exposure to noise, but it remains a major source of localised noise pollution (EEA, 2015).

It is estimated that 100 million people in the EU are exposed to L_den levels from road traffic noise that are above 55 dB. Night-time road traffic is another major source of noise exposure, with approximately 69 million EU citizens exposed to harmful L_night levels above 50 dB (ETC_ACM, 2016 and EEA 2017a, EEA 2017b). In addition, many people are also exposed to rail, aircraft and industrial noise, particularly in towns and cities. While high levels of aircraft noise do not affect a wide geographical area, its harmful effects have been shown to include a reduced ability of younger generations to concentrate in schools that are affected by aircraft flight paths (EEA, 2014).

Figure 1. Estimated number of people in the EU exposed to high daily average noise levels, 2012

Note: 1. Urban areas are the urban agglomerations, defined as such in the Environmental Noise Directive, that are the part of the territory, delimited by the Member State, having a population in excess of 100 000 persons and a population density such that the Member State considers it to be an urbanised area.
2. The numbers of people exposed can only be summed for the same source inside and outside urban areas and not across sources, since the latter could lead to double counting.
3. 55 dB Lden is the EU threshold for excess exposure defined in the Environmental Noise Directive. It indicates an annual average level during the day, evening and night; dB=decibel.

Examples of measures to reduce noise exposure currently being undertaken at the national level include installing road and rail noise barriers and optimising aircraft movements around airports. However, it is widely acknowledged that the most effective actions to reduce exposure tend to be those that reduce noise at source, for example reducing the number of vehicles on the road, introducing quieter tyres for road vehicles or laying quieter road surfaces.

A major problem for the effectiveness of such measures is that, given the different factors that determine traffic noise, a single measure alone is often not sufficient to significantly reduce exposure.

In terms of assessing past trends in noise exposure, data were reported to the EEA in 2007 and in 2012 under two rounds of noise mapping assessments. There are comparability issues between the two reporting rounds because of a lack of common assessment methods and incomplete reporting of exposure assessments, with as little as 62 % of the expected amount of data, depending on source, being delivered in the second reporting round.

However, the analysis of a sub-set of the reported data that were comparable revealed that exposure to noise has remained broadly constant between 2007 and 2012.

Efforts to reduce the noise from individual sources were offset by the higher numbers of people being exposed to high noise levels, mainly due to increasing passenger road and aviation traffic (EEA, 2017c) and increasing numbers of city inhabitants (Eurostat, 2016). The construction of new roads may have also exposed new areas and populations to road traffic noise.

Finally, it is unlikely that noise pollution will decrease significantly by 2020, given that transport demand is expected to increase (EC, 2016), air traffic noise has been predicted to increase (EASA et al, 2016) and the number of city inhabitants is also set to increase (Eurostat, 2016).

Country level information

Road traffic is the most widespread noise source in Europe and is the source that causes the largest number of people to be exposed to noise levels above the Environmental Noise Directive threshold levels for L_den and L_night. This is true at the European scale, at country scale and both inside and outside urban areas. Nevertheless, a wide variation can be identified between countries in the number of people exposed to road traffic noise in urban areas. This is significantly influenced by factors such as the number of urban areas per country, the total number of inhabitants per urban area, and differences between the methods countries have used to estimate noise exposure. The correlation between the total number of inhabitants in an urban area and the number of people exposed to road traffic noise is very strong.

The Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Poland and Switzerland reported that more than 50 % of inhabitants in urban areas (an urban agglomeration with more than 100 000 inhabitants) were exposed to road noise L_den levels above 55 dB, while Belgium and Bulgaria reported figures of more than 75 % for the equivalent exposure (Figure 2). At the other end of the scale, the number of inhabitants exposed to road noise L_den levels above 55 dB in Germany, Hungary, Malta and Portugal remained below 25 %. As mentioned above, however, country-specific data are not necessarily comparable.

Figure 2. Percentage of population exposed to high road noise daily average levels within urban areas, by country, 2012

Note:
55 dB L_den is the EU threshold for excess exposure defined in the Environmental Noise Directive. It indicates an annual average level during the day, evening and night; dB=decibel.

Outlook beyond 2020

Regarding the long-term outlook for exposure to environmental noise in Europe, there are a number of challenges to reducing population exposure to noise pollution. Economic growth and expanding transport networks can lead to increased transport levels that could, in turn, increase noise pollution. At the same time, trends towards increasing urbanisation (Eurostat, 2016) could lead to higher numbers of people being exposed. Transport demand, including for passenger cars is expected to increase by 2050 (EC, 2016 and EEA, 2015), with noise from road traffic representing the dominant source of environmental noise and noise from air traffic also set to increase (EASA et al, 2016). While the use of electric cars currently contributes to lower noise levels at low speeds in urban areas, the new EU regulation on the sound levels of motor vehicles (EU, 2014) will require the installation of artificial sound generators in all electric and hybrid vehicles by 2021 to improve safety for pedestrians. Whether or not exposure to noise increases or decreases beyond 2020 depends on the relative rates of these as well as of other developments.

About the indicator

The Environmental Noise Directive (END) requires two main indicators to be applied in the assessment and management of environmental noise. The first indicator (L_den) is the noise level for the day, evening and night periods and is designed to measure ‘annoyance’. The END defines an L_den threshold of 55 dB. The second indicator (L_night) is the noise level for night-time periods and is designed to assess sleep disturbance. The END defines an L_night threshold of 50 dB. Member States must report the numbers of people who are exposed to noise levels above both thresholds for each noise source (e.g. roads, railways, airports, industry). The EEA uses the reported data to publish an indicator for environmental noise in Europe that focuses on environmental noise exposure to L_den since this covers the full 24 hour period (EEA, 2017b). A complete assessment of exposure to environmental noise and a prognosis regarding the future outlook are hindered by the fact that exposure estimates reported by countries are not complete, with as little as 62 % of the expected amount of data, depending on source, being delivered in the second reporting round (EEA, 2014). The gaps in the reported data have been filled with expert estimates. The lack of comparable and common assessment methods often causes significant inconsistencies between exposure estimates from different countries, for regions and cities within a single country and across the two main reporting rounds (2007 and 2012).