Local authorities in The Netherlands supported by new software tooling in delivering European strategic noise maps Dorien Lolkema 1 , Danny Greefhorst 2 , Jan Skornsek 3 National Institute for Public Health and the Environment Antonie van Leeuwenhoeklaan 9 3721 MA Bilthoven The Netherlands

ABSTRACT The new reporting mechanism of the European Environmental Agency makes for uniform and standardized data exchange. It is an inevitable move in a world where environmental data needs not only to be available, but also accessible to all people. This change however, asks a lot of competent authorities. All competent authorities must now alter their standard operating procedures when producing strategic noise maps and other reports. The Dutch government wants to support competent authorities in complying with this new reporting mechanism by developing software tooling. The tooling is an extension of an already developed platform that supports the Dutch noise legislation rules. With this specialized tooling, competent authorities can upload a file with their strategic noise map. The tooling takes care of reprojecting to the required coordinate system and the validation of the file to the information model of the new reporting mechanism. It also merges individual strategic noise maps to compose national strategic noise maps. In addition, the tooling takes care of publishing the according INSPIRE compliant services. In this presentation, we will show you how this works, and how it fits in with national and European noise legislation. Finally, future perspectives of this development will be presented.

1. INTRODUCTION

The new reporting mechanism of the European Environmental Agency makes for uniform and standardized data exchange. It is an inevitable move in a world where environmental data needs not only to be available, but also accessible to all people. This change however, asks a lot of competent authorities. All competent authorities must now alter their standard operating procedures when producing strategic noise maps and other reports. The Dutch government wants to support competent authorities in complying with this new reporting mechanism by developing software tooling.

2. EUROPEAN NOISE DIRECTIVE

The European Noise Directive, i.e. Directive 2002/49/EC of 25 June 2002, is the main EU instrument to identify noise pollution levels and to trigger the necessary action both at Member State and at EU level. The Directive applies to noise to which humans are exposed, particularly in built-up areas, in public parks or other quiet areas in an agglomeration, in quiet areas in open country, near schools,

1 Dorien.lolkema@rivm.nl 2 Danny.greefhorst@rivm.nl 3 Jan.Skornsek@rivm.nl

hospitals and other noise-sensitive buildings and areas. It does not apply to noise that is caused by the exposed person himself, noise from domestic activities, noise created by neighbours, noise at work places or noise inside means of transport or due to military activities in military areas. The Directive requires Member States to prepare and publish, every five years, noise maps and noise management action plans for: • agglomerations with more than 100,000 inhabitants; • major roads (more than 3 million vehicles a year); • major railways (more than 30.000 trains a year); • major airports (more than 50.000 movements a year, including small aircrafts and helicopters). When developing noise management action plans, Member States' authorities are required to consult the concerned public [1].

2.1. Strategic noise maps So, the European Noise Directive requires noise maps and noise management action plans from Member States every five years. The European Noise Directive defines noise mapping as follows: "noise mapping" shall mean the presentation of data on an existing or predicted noise situation in terms of a noise indicator, indicating breaches of any relevant limit value in force, the number of people affected in a certain area, or the number of dwellings exposed to certain values of a noise indicator in a certain area [2]. In order to be able to perform this noise mapping, strategis noise maps are required. The European Noise Directive defines strategic noise maps as follows: "strategic noise map" shall mean a map designed for the global assessment of noise exposure in a given area due to different noise sources or for overall predictions for such an area [2]. Tabel 1 summarizes the required strategic noise maps Member States should supply. Table 1: Overview of the strategic noise maps Member States should supply. There are sixteen maps in total. Industry refers to: industrial activity sites, including ports.

Agglomerations Lden Lnight Lden Lnight Agglomerations Agglomerations Road traffic Road traffic Major roads Major roads Rail traffic Rail traffic Major railways Major railways Airports Airports Major airports Major airports Industry Industry 3. REPORTING MECHANISM

The existing reporting mechanism [3], which could be used untill 31 December 2021, required severe updating due to the INSPIRE Directive. The INSPIRE Directive aims to create a European Union spatial data infrastructure for the purposes of EU environmental policies and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment. This European Spatial Data Infrastructure will enable the sharing of environmental spatial information among public sector organisations, facilitate public access to spatial information across Europe and assist in policy-making across boundaries. The Directive came into force on 15 May 2007 and will be implemented in various stages, with full implementation required by 2021 [4]. So, the existing reporting mechanism was changed to make for uniform and standardized data exchange, as a result of the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/1967 of 11 November 2021 [5]. 4. EFFECT ON COMPETENT AUTHORITIES

Although Member States are obliged to supply the mandatory strategic noise maps, it is the competent authorities that have to make them. It is an action taken only once every five years, so no routine whatsoever, especially when staff changes regulary. Faced first with starting to aquire the necessary data, which is a job in inself, competent authorities are then faced with a complete new noise calculation model CNOSSOS [6]. Having overcome these struggles, they face a complete new mandatory data model. It is al lot to take for many competent authorities.

4.1. The Dutch solution The Dutch government has a support program in effect in which competent authorities are supported in supplying their strategic noise maps [7]. With respect to the recent change of the reporting mechanism, i.e. the new mandatory data model, the Dutch government ordered to develop software tooling as an extension of an already developed platform that supports the Dutch noise legislation rules. With this specialized tooling, competent authorities can upload a file with their strategic noise map. The tooling takes care of reprojecting to the required coordinate system and the validation of the file to the information model of the new reporting mechanism. It also merges individual strategic noise maps to compose national strategic noise maps. In addition, the tooling takes care of publishing the according INSPIRE compliant services. 5. SOFTWARE TOOLING

The developed software tooling to support competent authorities in supplying their strategic noise maps is an extension of an already developed platform that supports the Dutch noise legislation rules. The Dutch noise legislation rules are part of the new Dutch Environment and Planning Act [8]. In this new Environment and Planning Act of The Netherlands environmental data needs not only to be available, but also accessible to all people. So, uniform data exchange is made mandatory, just as for the European Noise Directive. This is why the already developed platform could easily be extended with a tool to support the supply of strategic noise maps according to the new mandatory data model. Figure 1 shows a preview of the file managing part where competent authorities can manages their files.

Figure1: Preview of the file managing part of the developed software tooling where competent authorities can manage their files. 6. CONCLUSIONS

This paper is written before 1 July 2022, the date at which the developed software tooling is planned to go live. Therefore, first experiences with the software tooling to support competent authorities in supplying their strategic noise maps will be shared at my oral presentation at INTER-NOISE 2022 Conference in Glasgow.

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7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge all of our stakeholders for their ideas, feedback, testing and support. 8. REFERENCES

1. Environmental Noise Directive; https://ec.europa.eu/environment/noise/directive_en.htm 2. Directive 2002/49/EC; https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32002L0049y 3. Reporting mechanism; https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/noise-handbook/ 4. INSPIRE; https://inspire.ec.europa.eu / about-inspire/563 5. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32021D1967 6. CNOSSOS; https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC72550 7. InfoMil; https://www.infomil.nl/onderwerpen/geluid/uitvoering-kartering/ (in Dutch) 8. Environment and Planning Act; https://www.government.nl/topics/spatial-planning-and- infrastructure/revision-of-environment-planning-laws