Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

61 Chapter 3: Environmental Noise 3. Assessment of environmental noise from transport sources in Ireland 2 gis.epa.ie (accessed 20 July 2024). Strategic noise mapping The EU END deals with environmental noise from major transport infrastructure including roads, railways and airports. The directive sets out a two-stage process for addressing environmental noise by requiring Member States to: ■ establish the scale of the noise problem by preparing ‘strategic noise maps’ for major roads, railways, airports, agglomerations and industries ■ develop noise action plans to reduce the level of noise where necessary and to maintain environmental noise quality where it is good. Strategic noise maps show noise exposure levels in terms of two noise indicators, L den and L night . Mapping is not undertaken across the whole of each Member State but within designated major cities, in the vicinity of major road and rail transport corridors, and around major airports. The thresholds that apply to the noise mapping are: ■ major roads – more than 3 million vehicle passages per year ■ major railways – more than 30,000 train passages per year ■ major airports – more than 50,000 air movements per year ■ major cities – in excess of 100,000 population, which in Ireland includes Dublin, Cork and Limerick. Strategic noise maps are prepared using computer modelling techniques that use various types of source data to estimate noise levels, including traffic flow, types of road and rail, types of vehicles and vehicle speeds. As the designated national authority for the purposes of noise regulations (S.I. No. 549/2018 and S.I. No. 663/2021), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has responsibility for overseeing their implementation. Responsibility for the preparation of the strategic noise maps lies with the designated noise mapping bodies. These include Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), the various local authorities, Iarnród Éireann- Irish Rail and Dublin Airport Authority. Presenting information on strategic noise maps increases public awareness of noise exposure and provides data for the identification of priority areas for noise action plans. Round 4 strategic noise mapping uses 2021 data as the representative year. The maps can be viewed on the EPA Maps section of the EPA website. 2 An example for Cork is shown in Figure 3.3. Figure 3.3  Illustrative strategic noise map (L den ) for Cork city agglomeration using data from the environmental noise maps, available on gis.epa.ie/EPAMaps/ (June 2024) Noise Round 4 Road Agglomerations - Lden Greater than 75dB 70-74dB 65-69dB 60-64dB 55-59dB