Florence, 19
th
of March 2009
Noise in cities: general approach andEuropean network solutions
by Mr. Henk Wolfert
Introduction
Noise is often called the Cinderella of the environmental aspects. Where other environmental aspects like air pollution, soil contamination and climate change get andgot a lot of public and/or political attention, noise is often overlooked. Many politiciansand policy makers are not aware of the harmful effects of noise and think that noise isonly annoying the exposed people and when the switch is turned off and the noise isvanished the effects are gone immediately or within a short time as well. This paper will be focussed on noise in cities. What are the main causes of it, what are the harmful andeven irreversible effects of long lasting noise and what can be done on a local level,national and European level to reduce the number of exposed people in Europe drastically.Reducing these numbers means that the numbers of health incidents will decrease too.
Noise in cities
In general, cities are very crowded, a lot of people are living, working, visiting, studyingand recreating in urbanized areas. Currently almost 70 per cent of the European citizensare living in cities and their number is still growing up to 80 per cent the next decades.Cities are like a magnet for a lot of people. This is because of numerous reasons, cities areoffering more:-facilities for culture and recreation (museum, cinema’s,zoo, theatre, concerts, disco, stadiums, special events et cetera)-shops, shopping malls and commercial zones-employment than in suburbs or in the rural areas-schools, universities and educational institutes-anonymity than small villages-diversity in housing-interconnectivity to other cities and parts of the country
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Florence, 19
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And a lot of other reasons more because not all advantages a city offers compared withsmall villages, the rural areas or hamlets is listed above. Summarized, cities are morevibrant and energizing than other places like villages or rural areas. But,.. the shadow side of these advantages are numerous too! It is not only the density of buildings, roads, worksand activities that takes place in cities but also the density of people as receivers of theunwanted effects of those things. Noise, air pollution, litter, water pollution, soil pollutionare more present in urbanized areas than elsewhere. The policies on local, national andEuropean level to strive to a more compact city could lead to more noise problems. As weknow compact cities could avoid urban sprawl which leads to more transport movementsfrom city to the suburb and areas outside the city. It is also an answer to cope with theeffect of climate change because not built up areas can absorb and retain the rainwater during and after heavy rainfalls where built up areas cannot. In this paper we focus onnoise but we do not forget that other important environmental problems exist and thatsolving more problems by applying integrated measures which are beneficial for morethan one environmental aspect deserves our preferences.As known from numerous publications in the past decade, traffic noise is considered asthe most dominant source of noise in urbanized areas. This is often based on surveys donewithin the framework of the Environmental Noise Directive (2002/49/EC). In thisdirective, abbreviated as END, competent bodies are compelled to make Noise Maps and Noise Action Plans. Only airport noise, railway noise, road traffic noise and noiseoriginated by enterprises are subject of the END. Other kinds of noise are neglected likeconstruction noise, recreational noise, low frequency noise, neighbour noise,neighbourhood noise and noise from special events like carnival, festivals and similar temporary events.This makes that one has to realize that the noise maps according to the END do not cover the whole noise situation in cities assuming that the production of the noise maps is properly done by the city and/or their consultant. Noise from some roads, enterprises,railways do not meet the threshold criteria mentioned in the END and are excluded fromthe maps. The same with some kinds of aviation like heliports, model planes, ultra lightset cetera. As mentioned afore construction noise, recreation noise, neighbour noise isexcluded from the Noise maps too. This means that we have to realize that we may not saythat traffic noise is the most dominant sort of noise in urbanized areas. And one mayexpect that the noise caused by transport or traffic will increase. The number of cars andvehicles will grow the next decades and the number of citizens too. The forecasts areshowing us that the transport movements will grow at least with 1-2 per cent per year.This was estimated before the global financial crisis. Hence, if measures stay behind thenuisance will increase as well in Europe. Social surveys done all over Europe by a lot of
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cities, countries or institutes have shown us that neighbour noise is annoying the peoplethe most. People often report noise from mopeds and scooters as the second category of nuisance. Or sent in a lot of complaints about it. These findings could be important for politicians and policy makers in order to prioritize them. Assuming that the municipalityhas the resources and the powers to mitigate the noise. Not only the traffichas increaseddramatically the lastdecades, see thefigure below. Alsothe number of noisyequipment inhouseholds hasincreased. In thesixties a family housecomprised a washingmachine, a vacuumcleaner, a radio andsometimes a television. Nowadays a family house comprises a lot of equipment likenumerous televisions and radio’s and other audio equipment, a fridge, a freezer, a dishwasher, drilling machines, sewing and sawing machines, a motorized lawn mower, leave blowers and so on. And this produces noise. Apart from that the houses are furniture withwooden or tiled floors, no curtains, no carpets, wooden stairs without carpet cover and last but not least people have more time and money to spend and are more at home, recreating,outgoing et cetera. And all those activities are causing noise too.
Harmful effects of Noise
As reported by many institutions and scientist in the past decades, noise especially longlasting noise causes health effects in humans. As mentioned in the introduction, most of the people assume that noise is only causing annoyance. But this is not the case at all. Noise can cause harmful effects in people. The most known effects beside annoyance aresleep disturbance, hearing impairment, high blood pressure, cardio vascular diseases,cognitive effects like reading and memory impairment, fear and getting depressed,deterioration of the immune system and congenital effects.
EffectEvidenceMetricLevel
Annoyance+++L
DEN
42Sleep disturbance+++SEL35Hypertension++L
Aeq,night
55Biochemical+L
Aeq,night
55Ischemic HeartDisease++L
Aeq,night
> 55Myocardial infarcts+++L
Aeq,night
> 55Hearing impairment+++L
Aq, 24 hr
70Decreased performing+Immune system+
Table 1: effects of noise
The category Ischemic Heart Diseases embraces a wide range of diseases likeangina pectoris, pain on the breast and others. In general it can be said that enoughevidence is found for this category. But for some of the diseases which are knownunder Ischemic Heart Diseases there is only limited evidence. Distortion of theimmune system was found in some surveys while other investigations could not
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Paper congres European strategies for noise reductions and noise management in cities, Florence 2009
In March 2009 a congress will be held in Firenze preliminary to the meeting of working group noise of EUROCITIES. This paper will be presented.
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