Noise
The Environmental Noise Directive, EC 2002/49/EC, was transposed into Irish Law as Statutory Instrument, S.I. 140 of 2006, Environmental Noise Regulation 2006. The Directive requires Member States to prepare and publish, every 5 years, noise maps and noise management action plans. The data represented here for download and that on EPA Maps is the 2017 phase of noise mapping, representing the third round of the implementation of the EC Directive 2002/49/EC.
All noise maps are presented in terms of two noise indicators: Lden and Lnight. Lden is the day-evening-night noise indicator and it represents the noise indicator for overall annoyance. It is ‘weighted’ to account for extra annoyance in the evening and night periods. Lnight is the night time noise indicator and is used in the assessment of sleep disturbance. These indicators are based on year long averages of the day (07:00-19:00), evening (19:00-23:00) and night (23:00-07:00) time periods.
Strategic noise maps related data as listed in Annex VI for major roads, railways, airports and agglomerations:
- Per agglomeration ≥ 100,000 inhabitants;
- For overall major roads ≥ 3 millions vehicles per year;
- For overall major railways ≥ 30,000 trains per year;
- For major airports ≥ 50,000 air traffic movements per year.
