Experiences with public participation during action planning in small and medium-sized German cities

Information and participation of the public is required by the Environmental Noise Directive, article 8 and 9. The public is supposed to be informed early enough and to have the opportunity to participate in the course of noise action planning. As the directive has been implemented in Germany since more than ten years, different experiences have been made with the participation of the public in small and medium-sized German cities from 5.000 up to 50.000 inhabitants. A broad range of participation tools has been developed and is used in different situations. Face-to-face participation has turned out to be essential, yet internet participation has become more and more important even in smaller communities. An effective approach are "noise walks", where noisy and quiet areas are visited in groups of 15 to 25 people in no longer than 1,5 hour walks and subjective impressions are discussed among participants.