TSG#6 Community Noise : Environmental Noise Impact Assessment and Mitigation

This paper reviews the ongoing work of I-INCE Technical Study Group (TSG) #6, Community Noise: Environmental Noise Impact Assessment and Mitigation. The objective of this working group is to produce a report which provides practical guidance to policy makers who are involved with the regulation and control of community noise/environmental noise, excluding the noise generated by neighbors. The proposed Final Report of I-INCE TSG #6, “Guidelines for Effective Management of Community Noise”, will provide information on how to perform an environmental noise impact analysis, the use of land use planning as a noise management tool, the use of existing exposure-response relationships, the use of cost-benefit analysis in considering noise control engineering tradeoffs, and the importance of public involvement, negotiation and consensus-building to achieve effective and balanced environmental noise management strategies. The TSG #6 Final Report will be aimed primarily at a non-technical audience. It will advocate for a flexible approach to noise management where the positive effects of controlling exposure to community noise are carefully balanced against the costs and technical difficulties of achieving effective noise control. Thus, the report of TSG #6 should be viewed as supplementing existing and still evolving immission community/environmental noise policies. The current paper describes the general approach and proposed content of the Draft Final Report for TSG #6.