Noise protection

Noise protection refers to all measures to protect against noise that is significantly annoying or harmful to health. The legal regulations on noise protection serve to balance the interests of those responsible for noise and those affected.

In the context of noise protection, a distinction is made between airports, roads and railroads, construction sites, commercial and industrial facilities, sports and leisure facilities and neighborhood noise sources. Depending on the type of area, there are different immission limit values or immission guide values for each of these types of noise source.
Noise protection also includes precautionary urban land-use planning, such as the separation of industrial and residential areas or the concentration of noise in areas where it cannot be avoided anyway.

In 2002, the member states of the European Community, in agreement with the European Parliament, adopted the Directive on the assessment and management of environmental noise. The aim of this directive is, among other things, an EU-wide inventory of noise pollution from various noise sources and, if necessary, the subsequent noise reduction within the framework of noise action plans.