Noise

Technical assistance and advisory panels

The European Environment Agency in Copenhagen

The EEA supports the European Commission in noise data-management (including several data flows) as well as in assessments of noise exposure. It assisted the Commission in developing a proposal for an electronic reporting mechanism in early 2007, harmonised to the EEA reporting system. Information reported so far by the Member States has been reviewed by the EEA and is available on the Commission’s CIRCA site. In 2001, EEA published a first estimation of the number of people exposed to traffic noise. This indicator was developed under the EEA’s transport and environment reporting mechanism (TERM). The next assessment of noise exposure will be based on the information reported by Member States by the end of 2007 under the Environmental Noise Directive. This will be the first time countries report exposure to certain noise levels. According to the Directive the Commission must establish a database of the reported information. The EEA is supporting this work. EEA leads the EU working group on assessment of exposure to noise (now referred to as EPoN –see below), which developed guidance on noise mapping under the Environmental Noise Directive. EEA works closely with the European Topic Centre on Land Use and Spatial Information and with EEA’s country network (Eionet).

The Joint Research Centre in Ispra

The Commission has established administrative arrangements with DG JRC (Ispra) for the purpose of providing technical assistance relating to a number of implementing provisions.

The most recent "Noise III" arrangement was agreed in 2010 The 15-month arrangement (expiring end 2011) will ensure the continuity of the technical work carried out to date, focusing in particular on:

Further validating the new assessment methods (CNOSSOS EU)
Developing guidance for implementing the (new) assessment methods,
Further improving Reportnet,
Establishing test cases for developers of noise mapping software,
Assessing the feasibility of establishing a reference laboratory to provide additional technical assistance to MS and the Commission;

The Expert Panel on Noise (EPoN)

Expert Panel on Noise (EPoN) is an advisory group that is lead by the EEA. According to its Terms of Reference the group supports the general implementation and the review of the Directive. It has a broad expertise in the noise domain and has produced several position papers and guidelines regarding to the Directive.