Introduction
Sound, noise and quiet
Definitions and selection criteria
Health benefits of quiet & biodiversity
The economic value of quiet areas
Lessons learned from commitments by MS and other competent authorities
Methods for identifying quiet areas
Recommendations and Conclusions
More on:
- references & useful documents and links
- health effects
- quiet facades
- protection and monitoring
Disclaimer: this site is based on the published EEA document, but not identical. Over time the differences will increase as more recent material will be added to this site by Chiaramonte Consult. Please send your comments and suggestions for extensions and improvment to info@quietareas.eu..
The economic value
of quiet areas
A first order benefits from quiet (areas) in agglomerations follows from the absence of the loss caused by noise. This can be estimated either via the decrease of property values or via the loss associated with the health effects. Generally it is felt that these losses shouldnot simply be combined, because the loss in property values is partially caused by the fear living in an unhealthy environment. Facts about these losses (see also GPG on health effects ):
-The direct effect of lower sound-pressure levels due to decrease in property prices is estimated to be ~0.5%/dB
- More than 1,000,000 healthy life years are lost every year in Western Europe due to environmental noise and is thereby the second worst environmental cause of ill health, next to air pollution- The social costs of traffic, rail and road noise across the EU was recently estimated amount to €40 billion a year, of which 90% is related to passenger cars and goods vehicles” .
The Swedish Transport Administration estimates
that
the social cost for noise in
