Quiet area

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"Quiet area" or "quiet areas" is a concept used in landscape planning to highlight areas with good sound quality and limited noise disturbance. The concept is typically used in nature and nature-like areas with high experiential values and/or high accessibility. Despite the name, quiet areas are not "quiet" in the strictest meaning of the word. Rather, they imply a relative quietness, where other sounds than noise are given the chance to come forward. [1] For instance, sounds of nature are often subtle in character, and require absence of noise to be heard. Quietness in its true sense hardly exists at all. [2]

Contents

Background and history

In the planning processes for everyday landscapes, the sound environment has traditionally been given relatively low priority. [3] If sound is at all considered, it is mostly in response to problems with environmental noise, dealt with through measurements of sound pressure levels and technical solutions.

Strategies to avoid noise have existed at least since ancient Greece and have been implemented on a wider scale since the 1970s in the western world. [4] While playing a critical role to reduce noise and associated problems with health, [5] noise management does not take account of the experiential qualities inherent in sound. [3] With "quiet areas", it can be said that focus started to shift from noise to include also the potential qualities in the sound environment, like twittering birds, rustling vegetation and rippling water. This holistic way of thinking is in line with the discourse on soundscape, [6] a research field that started to become influential around the same time as the concept of quiet areas was introduced. [3]

In the EU, the notion of quiet areas can be traced to 1996 when it was mentioned in a Green Paper on "Future Noise Policy". [7] Today, the concept is mostly associated with the influential directive on environmental noise from 2002 (2002/49/EC), [8] where it is stipulated that member states should map their quiet areas as well as formulate strategies to protect them from future noise exposure. The instructions and definitions on quiet areas that were mentioned in the directive were vague, and clarifications and guidelines have been added subsequently. [9] [10]

Definitions and identification strategies

Definitions of what a "quiet area" is varies widely, which is partly a result of the formulations used in the END Directive. [8] The directive makes a distinction between two types of quiet areas; in "open country" and in "agglomerations", which are defined as follows:

A quiet area in open country shall mean an area, delimited by the competent authority, that is undisturbed by noise from traffic, industry or recreational activities.

A quiet area in an agglomeration shall mean an area, delimited by the competent authority, for instance which is not exposed to a value of Lden or of another appropriate noise indicator greater than a certain value set by the Member State, from any noise source.

In other words; to a large extent, the END directive leaves it to each member state to formulate their own definitions of what qualifies as a quiet area. A number of different interpretations and definitions have come out as a result, many of these were collected in a subsequent publication in the union entitled "Good Practice Guide on quiet areas". [9] Definitions typically include a reference to a benchmark sound pressure level between 25-55 dBA.

A method to identify potential for quiet areas has also been brought forward by the EU; [10] the so called "Quietness Suitability Index" (QSI) uses existing data for noise and land use to indicate potential for quietness. Maps can be accessed through the European Environmental Agency's homepage [11]

Examples and applications

The UK has seen several initiatives related to quiet areas including an interactive map [12] from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) depicting five quiet areas in Belfast.

A smartphone application Hush City [13] has been developed as a means to aid identification of quiet areas from a user perspective. The app was released in 2017 and it is now used internationally by citizens and municipalities [14] to map and assess quiet areas, and share them via an open access web-platform. [15]

In Sweden, the initiative "Guide to Silence" has been implemented in several municipalities in the Stockholm region. [1] The initiative is noteworthy for its emphasis on marketing quiet areas and making them accessible to the public.

Initiatives have also been taken in Greece and the Netherlands among other places [ examples needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noise</span> Unwanted sound

Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference arises when the brain receives and perceives a sound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noise pollution</span>

Noise pollution, or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise or sound with ranging impacts on the activity of human or animal life, most of which are harmful to a degree. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is mainly caused by machines, transport and propagation systems. Poor urban planning may give rise to noise disintegration or pollution, side-by-side industrial and residential buildings can result in noise pollution in the residential areas. Some of the main sources of noise in residential areas include loud music, transportation, lawn care maintenance, construction, electrical generators, wind turbines, explosions and people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natura 2000</span> Network of protected areas in the territory of the European Union

Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectively. The network includes both terrestrial and Marine Protected Areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental noise</span>

Environmental noise is an accumulation of noise pollution that occurs outside. This noise can be caused by transport, industrial, and recreational activities.

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A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term was originally coined by Michael Southworth, and popularised by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, ranging from urban design to wildlife ecology to computer science. An important distinction is to separate soundscape from the broader acoustic environment. The acoustic environment is the combination of all the acoustic resources, natural and artificial, within a given area as modified by the environment. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standardized these definitions in 2014.

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Tranquillity is the quality or state of being tranquil; that is, calm, serene, and worry-free. The word tranquillity appears in numerous texts ranging from the religious writings of Buddhism—where the term passaddhi refers to tranquillity of the body, thoughts, and consciousness on the path to enlightenment—to an assortment of policy and planning guidance documents, where interpretation of the word is typically linked to engagement with the natural environment. It is also famously used in the Preamble to the United States Constitution, which describes one of the purposes for which the document was establishing the government as to "insure domestic Tranquility".

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soundscape ecology</span> Study of the effect of environmental sound on organisms

Soundscape ecology is the study of the acoustic relationships between living organisms, human and other, and their environment, whether the organisms are marine or terrestrial. First appearing in the Handbook for Acoustic Ecology edited by Barry Truax, in 1978, the term has occasionally been used, sometimes interchangeably, with the term acoustic ecology. Soundscape ecologists also study the relationships between the three basic sources of sound that comprise the soundscape: those generated by organisms are referred to as the biophony; those from non-biological natural categories are classified as the geophony, and those produced by humans, the anthropophony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental policy of the European Union</span> Environment protection policy

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References

  1. 1 2 Cerwén, Gunnar; Mossberg, Frans (7 January 2019). "Implementation of Quiet Areas in Sweden". Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health. 16 (134): 134. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16010134 . PMC   6339113 . PMID   30621011.
  2. ↑ Cage, John (1973). Silence: lectures and writings. Hanover, N.H.: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN   0819560286.
  3. 1 2 3 Cerwén, Gunnar (2017). Sound in Landscape Architecture: A Soundscape Approach to Noise. Alnarp: SLU. ISBN   9789177600725.
  4. ↑ Goldsmith, Mike (2012). Discord: the story of noise. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780199600687.
  5. ↑ WHO (2018). Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region. Regional Office for Europe: Copenhagen, Denmark.: World Health Organization.
  6. ↑ Schafer, Murray (1977). Soundscape: The Tuning of the World. Rochester, VT: Destiny Books.
  7. ↑ Commission of the European Communities (1996). Future Noise Policy. European Commission (Green Paper ed.). Brussels: Commission of the European Communities.
  8. 1 2 EU (2002). Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council Relating to the Assessment and Management of Environmental Noise. Official Journal of the European Communities: L 189: European Union.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  9. 1 2 European Environment Agency (2014). Good Practice Guide on Quiet Areas. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
  10. 1 2 European Environment Agency (2016). Quiet Areas in Europe: The Environment Unaffected by Noise Pollution. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
  11. ↑ "Quietness Suitability Index". EEA. European Environmenal Agency.
  12. ↑ "Interactive map". DEFRA. 10 December 2015.
  13. ↑ Radicchi, Antonella; Henckel, Dietrich; Memmel, Martin (2018). "Citizens as smart, active sensors for a quiet andjust city. The case of the "open sourcesoundscapes" approach to identify, assess and plan "everyday quiet areas" in cities". Noise Mapp. 5 (1): 1–20. doi: 10.1515/noise-2018-0001 . hdl: 11365/1233643 . S2CID   134846108.
  14. ↑ Berlin Senate (2020). Lärmaktionsplan Berlin 2019-2023. Berlin: Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr und Klimaschutz Öffentlichkeitsarbeit.
  15. ↑ "Hush City".
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