“Maps are the basis for action!”
With the release of the Directive 2002/49/EG by the European Parliament and the Council on 25 June 2002 regarding the assessment and the mitigation of environmental noise (EU Environmental Noise Directive) the European Union has provided a concept to identify the effects of noise and to prevent them. LÄRMKONTOR GmbH has played a major part in the creation and the implementation of the Environmental Noise Directive into German law.
In order to meet the regulations the municipality in charge usually has to develop strategic noise maps as a basis for appropriate action plans.
Strategic noise mapping
Strategic noise mapping is conducted in accordance to the European Environmental Noise Directive (END), its national implementations (e.g. in Germany: 34. BImSchV) and the harmonized European calculation regulations (CNOSSOS).
LÄRMKONTOR GmbH conducts noise mapping for smaller communities, for cities, for urban centers and also for federal states.
Noise action planning
Based on the results attained through mapping, LÄRMKONTOR GmbH devises complete noise action plans as well as partial services such as affectedness assessment or the evaluation of measures. An important aid in this process is the identification of hot spots – for instance in accordance with the LärmKennZiffer (LKZ – noise indicator) method by Bönnighausen/Popp.
Depending on the extent and the questions to be solved, these services are provided by us or in close cooperation with our partner, the traffic planning company LK Argus GmbH.
Public participation
As prescribed by the EU Environmental Noise Directive, the public has to be involved in the noise action planning process. However, there are no rules with respect to way and the extent to which this participation process has to take place. In practice, it is useful to consider the size of the community, the severity of the noise problems and the participation procedures commonly applied within that particular community.
LÄRMKONTOR GmbH supports communities in planning, conducting and evaluating public participation processes. For internet participation and the organization of larger events, we regularly cooperate with our partner konsalt GmbH.