Speaker
Description
Since the early 1990s, environmental noise has become increasingly established as a central element of European public health policy. The formal adoption of the Environmental Noise Directive (END, 2002/49/EC) marked a turning point, establishing a common approach to assessing exposure to environmental noise across the EU and requiring Member States to produce Strategic Noise Maps (SNM) every five years for all major roads, railways, airports, and urban areas. Three decades of experience have generated a growing body of knowledge and fresh perspectives, but enduring challenges remain.From a public health perspective, the urgency of SNM is undeniable. More than 112 million people in Europe are exposed to harmful levels of environmental noise pollution, and road traffic noise contributes significantly to this public health problem in many urban areas. These figures, together with the European Green Deal’s objectives of reducing the number of people disturbed by noise, underscore the importance of having harmonized mapping tools.Methodologically, the harmonization process has been arduous, and it was not until the fourth round of SNM that such process took place, with the CNOSSOS-EU methodology serving as a coherent approach for assessing noise levels from major sources across Europe. This overcame the fragmented national methods that hindered cross-border comparability in the early rounds of the SNM.The presented retrospective examines the evolution of noise management in Europe across four rounds of SNM: its policy achievements, methodological advances, as well as the gaps that still persist in harmonization.