Quality aspects of the European and global noise policies on environmental noise

Policies on environmental noise must be based on sound science and technology, but there are also political and legal requirements. In the first part of this paper, the various political, legal, and scientific aspects are identified. The scientific aspects include relevant definitions, sufficiently accurate assessment methods, and a clear distinction between emission, transmission, and immission. In principle, the scientific quality aspects can be very well combined with the legal and political requirements. In practice however, it is very common that one or more stakeholders have political or legal reasons to oppose improvement of the scientific quality.