Zone control as a first pace to noise mapping EU

Henk Wolfert

DCMR Environmental Protection Agency

‘s Gravelandseweg 565, 3119 XT, Schiedam, Netherlands
wol@dcmr.nl

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.

1
Euronoise 2006, Tampere, Finland Henk Wolfert

1 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.

2 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

2
Euronoise 2006, Tampere, Finland Henk Wolfert

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.

3
Euronoise 2006, Tampere, Finland Henk Wolfert

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

- 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).

3 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

4
Euronoise 2006, Tampere, Finland Henk Wolfert

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

5
Euronoise 2006, Tampere, Finland Henk Wolfert

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. to a certain extend making noise maps is just a technicality if we have the right
instruments and knowledge.
2. 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.
3. providers of data do not always cooperate with the organization that produces the
noise and risk maps.
4. 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.
5. interconnection with air quality maps or plans doesn’t occur till now but is
advisable because of the same originator, namely the traffic.
6. 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?

5 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.