Zone Control As A First Pace To Noise Mapping Eu

Zone control as a first pace to noise mapping EU Henk Wolfert DCMR Environmental Protection Agency ‘s Gravelandseweg 565, 3119 XT, Schiedam, Netherlands [email protected]

ABSTRACT From 1996 a zone control instrument is available at DCMR. DCMR runs this instrument, called Information system Industrial noise or I2. One of the tasks of DCMR is to control zoned industrial areas. I2 makes it possible to manage the noise produced by industries situated in zoned areas. The System is based on a Oracle database combined with a user interface. With the user interface it’s possible to retrieve the stored information from the database. The database mainly contains acoustic, geographic and administrative data like acoustic power levels, positions of sources, screens, and receptors. System I2 not only supports the proces of controlling limits of the zone but it also can supportive in granting environmental permits to industry, monitoring, advises and it’s the providing instrument to set up the industrial noise maps according to directive 2002/49 EU. Updating data takes place by bringing in new data that is provided by acoustic reports that must be requested for obtaining environmental permits. This process as well as the other processes mentioned before are formalised in quality control procedures. At the end of 2006 System I2 will be modernised in an instrument that has more functions, is based on new technology and is linked to GIS.

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Henk Wolfert

INTRODUCTION

This contribution informs you about zone control approach in the Rijnmond area and how zone control in the Rijnmond area was a first pace in making noise maps. Rijnmond is the region around Rotterdam and its harbour. Within the Rotterdam area 18 municipalities are situated. DCMR noise section carries out the environmental tasks (noise prevention and abatement) for these 18 municipalities (including the city of Rotterdam) but also for the province of South Holland in this region. In this region about 1.2 million people are living and more than 20.000 enterprises are active, varying from a bakery or a butcher’s till giant refineries and chemical industries such as the Dutch Anglo enterprise Shell. DCMR noise section works on noise caused by industry, road and rail traffic, airports, recreational activities, music, dance and sports events, building and construction works. More about our noise section can be found at DCMR’s website www.dcmr.nl From 1996 a zone control instrument is in operation at DCMR. DCMR runs this instrument, called Information system Industrial noise or I2 (I-square). One of the tasks of DCMR is to control zoned industrial areas as required by the Dutch Noise Abatement Act which came into force in 1982. This Noise Abatement Act introduced noise zones along roads, industrial areas and railways. These zones define the amount of noise enterprises situated in the industrial areas are allowed to produce. On the other hand these zones set strict criteria for building new houses and other vulnerable objects such as hospitals, nursing homes etc.

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I2 AND ZONE CONTROL

I2 makes it possible to manage the noise produced by industries within in zoned areas. The system is based on an Oracle database combined with a friendly user interface. With this user interface the stored information can be retrieved from the database. The database mainly contains acoustical, geographical and administrative data such as acoustic power levels, position of sources, screens, and receptors. System I2 not only supports the process of controlling and safeguarding the limits of the zone but also facilitates the process of granting environmental permits to industry, monitoring, advises and it’s the providing instrument to set up the industrial noise maps according to directive 2002/49 EU also called Environmental Noise Directive (END). Updating data takes place by bringing in new data that is provided by acoustic reports that must be requested by enterprises for obtaining environmental permits. This process as well as the other processes mentioned before are formalised in quality control procedures. At the end of 2006 System I2 will be modernised in an instrument that has more functions, has a windows look and feel user interface, is based on new technology and is linked to GIS. Nowadays nearly all present enterprises and advisors working in the Rotterdam area use the data delivered by the I2 database. The results of the computations based on I2 data are widely

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accepted by enterprises, advisors, citizens and authorities as it seems to be the acoustic truth for mankind in our area! Of course when I2 data are retrieved from the database and are handed over to the advisors there are some rules for mutating and handling these data and also for the process of putting back the mutated data back into the database must be complied with. I2 automatically checks the data that are put back into the database. The mutated data go through a calculation process before re-integration into the database. Mutation of data takes place when companies need an environmental permit or when spatial plans are made and assessment of the environmental impact is needed. Engineers seek DCMR for sets of data to make computations of the noise effects of their plans, request for permits or other acoustic studies. When the computations are finished the mutated data model is given back to DCMR to integrate in I2. Only the plans that will be realised will be re-integrated, not eventual alternative scenario’s that are calculated but discarded. In this way data in I2 are kept up to date. This holds true for all industrial noise sources as well as for the relevant objects in the surroundings of the industrial area (dwellings etc.).

Fig. 1. Lifecycle of I2data With I2, still state of the art in Holland, DCMR can support its legislative noise tasks efficient and effective. These noise tasks are inter alia: -

defining noise limits in environmental permits zone control and safeguarding the limits of industrial zones determination of noise aspects for spatial plans computation of spatial scenario’s determination of emissions for specific branches of industry monitoring the noise levels at the facades of dwellings near industrial areas by producing noise maps.

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The main advantages of I2 we can report at this stage are: -

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the multiple use of the system as reported before I2 is at every moment up to date and can reproduce former situations the acoustical, geographical and administrative data of the I2 database are approved by the systems demands and the users of the system within the Rotterdam region there is a standard of modelling. Authorities as well as advisors and enterprises are using the same acoustic model. This spares a lot of discussions. within the Rotterdam region there is a standard for outdoor noise propagation software (Geonoise which is called Predictor abroad). So, the data of the advisors is compatible with the system environment of the authorities. the system is accepted by enterprises, the relevant authorities and the advisors hired by the enterprises to conduct the acoustics investigations. the I2 system doesn’t only exist of software and hardware but also of “orgware “ because the system is ran by a sort of a foundation. In this pseudo-foundation not only DCMR participates but also the province of South Holland, the municipality of Rotterdam and the Rotterdam Port Authorities. A general manager is appointed who runs the daily business of I2 and also an application manager is present within the I2 organisation. The tasks of this application manager are to help the users with all kind of questions, to register the wishes of the users and report on the performance and security aspects of the system. The application manager also reports management information (use, filling degree of database, deliverable time of models that are put out to advisors and so on).

I2 AND NOISE MAPPING

Due to the last task mentioned before, monitoring noise levels, it’s just a small step to produce the EU noise maps. In the past ten years, DCMR has already produced noise maps for several purposes. Decision makers such as the ministry of Housing, Environment en Spatial Planning and the ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water management but also the National Bureau of Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) and the National Institute for Public Health and Environment have appealed on DCMR to make computations for their plans and investigations, because of the presence of I2. I will present some examples that DCMR carried out in the past ten years. 3.1

Deltaplan Noise (1999)

Deltaplan is named after the plan developed after the floods in 1953 to prevent Holland from the detrimental effects of the sea. The Deltaplan Noise aims to prevent the Rotterdam area to an extreme high noise burden and a lot of noise related health problems and diseases. Or by a more political statement: the Deltaplan aims to ensure good and liveable dwelling places. Within the Deltaplan study contours were estimated and the numbers of annoyed and highly annoyed people were calculated en presented by Risk Maps. It’s done for the current

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situation and for the future scenario (2020). The findings showed a substantial increase of the noise levels and number of annoyed people if current noise abatement strategies would be maintained. It also was found that more noise not automatically leads to higher numbers of annoyed people. In the Rotterdam region there are areas with high noise levels and low noise levels. One expects that areas with high levels will have a high amount of complaints and results in high numbers of annoyed people. This became untrue during the Deltaplan study. Other, non-acoustic factors were playing an important role due to the attitude of citizens living in a low noise area. This result was based on interviews by phone on the perception of citizens in a low noise area. I will show you some maps. For the traffic and railway noise calculations DCMR had to make separate calculations based on data obtained from traffic services of the municipalities and ministries. As you see most of the annoyance is caused by traffic noise.

Fig.2. Deltaplan noise contours 3.2

Noise and Health

In cooperation with National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM), the Dutch ministry of Housing, Environment en Spatial Planning and the Rotterdam Municipal Health Service and DCMR has carried out an investigation on noise and health. The health effects determined during this project are sleep disturbance, annoyance and high annoyance caused by noise. The study found relations between noise and annoyance, high annoyance, sleep disturbance and hypertension. Most annoying and sleep disturbing source was traffic noise. 12% of the inhabitants of the Rotterdam region is highly annoyed by traffic noise. This percentage will increase if noise mitigations will remain. The extra number of inhabitants suffering from hypertension amounts 3% and this percentage will also increase if measures remain default. Within the project the current (2002) and the future situation 2020 have been calculated. Both are visualized by means of noise and risk maps. The industrial noise maps DCMR produced are based on data from the Information system as mentioned before. The data were imported into a noise propagation model and with this model the noise levels were calculated on a grid around the industrial sites. With a

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Geographical Information System (GIS) the contours were visualized on a geographical background as you see on the sheets. Since 2002 the GIS has been developed more and more and is now suitable for making all kind of noise and risk maps. Nowadays DCMR is also producing the Rotterdam noise maps according to END. At the end of 2006 the Rotterdam map will be established by the Rotterdam council and published on the internet. 4

CONCLUSIONS

To conclude my contribution to this congress I will sum up some lessons learned in the past ten years. 1. 2.

3. 4. 5. 6.

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to a certain extend making noise maps is just a technicality if we have the right instruments and knowledge. gathering accurate and reliable input data for noise computations is difficult because data aren’t available or up to date, in the wrong format, not deliverable and often unreliable or computational work. providers of data do not always cooperate with the organization that produces the noise and risk maps. it’s advisable to set up a database with data needed for producing noise maps en to keep this database up to date for the second round of producing noise maps. interconnection with air quality maps or plans doesn’t occur till now but is advisable because of the same originator, namely the traffic. keep the maps simple because the public and authorities aren’t experts and they want transparency and clearness. E.g. is the noise burden in their environment good, moderated or even bad?

REFERENCES

[1] R.G. de Jong, R.Slob. Monitoring Milieu en Gezondheid, fase 2, pilot regio Rijnmond December 2004. MSR report. [2] R.Maat. final report Deltaplan Geluid 1999, DCMR EPA Schiedam. [3] Handbook with procedures I2, 1996 DCMR EPA Schiedam. [4] Dutch Noise Abatement Act. 16 February 1979. [5] Website I2, www.si2.nl [6] H.Wolfert, Industriële inrichtingen en geluidsbronnen, SDU Praktijkreeks geluid (in preparation). [8] H.Wolfert. Knowledge Base Environmental Legislation, chapter Noise. Stapel en de Koning 2000.

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