Environmental noise

Setting the scene

The 7th EAP (EU, 2013) includes an objective to significantly decrease noise pollution by 2020, moving closer to WHO recommended levels. The WHO (2011) has identified noise from transport as the second most significant environmental cause of ill health in Western Europe, the first being air pollution from fine particulate matter (AIRS_PO3.1, 2018). Environmental noise exposure can lead to annoyance, stress reactions, sleep disturbance, poor mental health and wellbeing, impaired cognitive function in children, and negative effects on the cardiovascular and metabolic system. 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].

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 reporting 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’.

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, environmental noise starting at L_night levels  below 40dB  can cause negative effects on sleep such as body movements, awakenings, self-reported sleep disturbance, as well as effects on the cardiovascular system that become apparent above 55 dB. All these impacts can contribute to a range of health effects, including premature mortality (WHO, 2009). The WHO established a night-time outdoor noise guideline value 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 L_den 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 about 100 million people in the EU are exposed to L_den levels from road traffic noise that are above 55 dB. Exposure to noise from night-time road traffic is also significant, with approximately 70 million EU citizens exposed to harmful L_night levels above 50 dB (EEA 2018). 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 impairment of reading and long-term memory in children attending schools that are affected by aircraft flight paths (Clark and Paunovic, 2018).

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

Notes: 1. This chart is based on data officially reported by countries under the EU Environmental Noise Directive (2002/49/EC). Due to gaps in the reported data, a gap-filling routine is used to estimate the total population exposure to high noise levels.
2. Urban areas are defined in the Environmental Noise Directive as urban agglomerations that make up that part of the territory, delimited by a Member State, that has a population in excess of 100 000 persons and a population density such that the Member State considers it to be an urbanised area. 
3. 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.
4. 55 dB Lden is the EU indicator threshold for noise 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 by countries include installing road and rail noise barriers, optimising aircraft movements around airports as well as using urban planning measures. However, it is widely acknowledged that the most effective actions to reduce exposure tend to be those that reduce noise at source, for example by 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 and improve health and wellbeing.

In terms of assessing past trends in noise exposure, data were reported to the EEA in 2007 and 2012 under two rounds of noise mapping assessments. There are comparability issues between the two reporting rounds because of different reporting requirements across them, a lack of common assessment methods and incomplete reporting of exposure assessments.

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

Efforts to reduce noise from individual sources have been offset by the higher numbers of people exposed to high noise levels, mainly because of increasing passenger road and aviation traffic (EC, 2018) 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 END 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 in 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.

Fifteen Member States reported that more than 50 % of inhabitants of urban areas (an urban agglomeration with more than 100 000 inhabitants) were exposed to road noise L_den levels above 55 dB (Figure 2). Of these, four reported figures of more than 75 % for the equivalent exposure (i.e. Cyprus followed by Belgium, Bulgaria and Latvia). At the other end of the scale, the reported number of inhabitants exposed to road noise L_den levels above 55 dB in Malta, Germany, and the United Kingdom (in order of magnitude) was below 25 %. As mentioned above, however, country-specific data are not necessarily comparable due to the different modelling approaches for estimating noise exposure currently used across the Member States.

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

Note: 55 dB Lden is the EU indicator threshold for noise 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 END requires two main indicators to be applied in the assessment and management of environmental noise. The first indicator (L_den) is the annual average 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 annual average 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 and 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 and L_night (EEA, 2018). 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. In such instances, 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 reporting rounds (2007 and 2012) for which data have been compiled to date.