PROCEEDINGS of the23rd International Congress on Acoustics
9 to 13 September 2019 in Aachen, Germany

Transposition of CNOSSOS-EU into German Law
René WEINANDY1; Thomas MYCK2
1

German Environment Agency, Germany

ABSTRACTOne of the most important environmental issues in densely populated areas is the problem of noise. Traffic
noise from cars, railway vehicles and airports located in close proximity to the city is not only annoying forresidents; it also leads to serious health issues and has an enormous negative economic impact. In 2002, toimprove the noise situation in Europe, the EU issued the Environmental Noise Directive (2002/49/EC). The
aim of the Directive is to reduce environmental noise and to prevent an increase in noise in areas which aretraditionally quiet. For this purpose, noise calculations are conducted for major roads, major railway lines,and various major airports with a high volume of traffic as well as large agglomerations. Until 2018, for thistask a national interim method has been used. In 2019, it is replaced by a new calculation procedure, because
the European Commission has developed „Common Noise Assessment Methods in Europe, CNOSSOS-EU”.
These methods have been implemented in Annex II to Directive 2002/49/EC in 2015. The transposition ofthis calculation procedure into German law will be explained in detail.
Keywords: CNOSSOS-EU, Noise, German law

1. INTRODUCTION
Environmental noise is an important issue causing one of the most common public compla ints inGermany and within the EU. The German Environment Agency regularly conducts representative
surveys to assess the impact of noise in Germany. According to the survey carried out in 201 6, around
76 % of those interviewed complained of being disturbed or annoyed by road traffic in the vicinity of
their homes [1]. Noise is not only annoying for residents; it also influences physical health: noise
activates the hormone system and the autonomic nervous system. As a result, blood pressure andheart rate may change, thus affecting metabolism and its regulation. Biological risk factors suchas blood sugar or blood clotting can change and lead to arteriosclerosis and hypertension or evenheart attack. The risk of illness grows with increasing noise exposure. Due to this, it is of primary
importance for city planners, engineers and politicians to make our cities quieter. For the assessmentof a noise situation, different methods are applied in Germany.

2. TRANSPOSITION OF CNOSSOS-EU IN GERMANY
2.1 General approach
The European Environmental Noise Directive (2002/49/EC) requires the development of noisemaps and action plans for traffic noise sources as well as noise from industry by the member states[2]. In Germany, this involves 70 agglomerations with around 24 million inhabitants, 49,000 km of
motorways and major trunk roads, 14,000 km of major railway lines and all eleven major airports. Forthis task interim noise calculation procedures has been used so far in Germany because there was noharmonized European method available. This situation has changed with the introduction of common
noise assessment methods pursuant to Article 6 of the Environmental Noise Directive by the European
Commission in 2015. These methods have been implemented in Annex II to Directive 2002/49/EC [3].
12rene.weinandy@uba.dethomas.myck@uba.de3611

The methods comprise detailed noise calculation procedures for road traffic, railway traffic and airtraffic as well as industry. For the application of CNOSSOS-EU in Germany, a transposition into
national law was necessary.
The objective of the German Government is to improve the quality of noise maps and thecomparability of results throughout Europe and create a solid basis for future policy on themanagement of environmental noise. Therefore, the methods should be designed in such a way thatthey can be easily applied in practice. Moreover, a comprehensive and systematic quality assurance
for the calculation process is needed. To reach these goals, the following steps were carried out foreach noise calculation procedure:• Checking calculation formulas and parameters• Closing of interpretation gaps
• Investigation of availability and quality of input data
• Definition of national default data
• Development of test cases and reference results for each noise source• Definition of standardized import/export formats for software products.
For this purpose, the German Environment Agency has commissioned a research project to a
consortium under the leadership of the German company Wölfel Engineering. In this project,interpretation gaps concerning the noise calculation procedures were investigated and closed.
Furthermore, a test procedure for the implementation the CNOSSOS-EU noise algorithm into software
was developed by the contractor. In the following this process will be explained at the example of theaircraft noise calculation.
2.2 Example aircraft noise calculation
For aircraft noise a procedure is described in CNOSSOS-EU which is based on a method containedin the 3 rd edition of document 29 of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC). It divides thethree-dimensional flight path into appropriate segments of length. This segmentation procedure
consists of two steps. The first step is an arc-segmentation of the flight route in the horizontal plane
which is combined with a segmentation of the height profile in the vertical plane. Then the segments
will be further subdivided based on acoustic and geometric criteria. This process leads to numerous
segments which describe take-off, airborne and approach phase of the aircraft. For the noise
calculation CNOSSOS-EU uses an “Aircraft Noise and Performance Database (ANP)” which contains
many civil aircraft. For these aircraft, engine performance coefficients and Noise-Power-Distance(NPD) data are given. The NPD data are an essential acoustic element of CNOSSOS -EU. They consistof maximum and time integrated weighted sound pressure levels as a function of distance for different
engine power settings.
For the description of height profile, two different types are used. Standard operational parameters
define fixed-point profiles. These parameters are altitude, flight speed and engine thrust of the aircraft.
The second type are procedural profiles which depend on actual aircraft ma ss, take-off or landing
procedures and meteorological conditions. The aerodynamic and performance parameters are listed inthe ANP database.
A detailed analysis of the CNOSSOS-EU aircraft noise algorithm showed that additional produces
and data are necessary to describe the operational situation at German airports. For instance, thealgorithm does not consider traffic circuits. However, traffic circuits are conducted at several airports
in Germany. Consequently, an algorithm for traffic circuits is impleme nted in the Germantransposition of CNOSSOS-EU. Moreover, fix point profiles for most aircraft types operating at
German airports are also added. Furthermore, the instructions on the acquisition of flight operational
data described in CNOSSOS-EU are substantially extended. This aircraft noise calculation procedure
is called “Calculation Method for Environmental Noise of Airports, BUF”. This set of rules consistsof instructions on the data acquisition at airports and the calculation algorithm with an associ ateddatabase. The instructions on the data acquisition contain elements and procedures that have provento be useful for the establishment of noise protection areas according to the German Act on Protection
against Aircraft Noise [4].
To ensure that the CNOSSOS-EU algorithm is correctly implemented in noise calculation soft ware, a test case was developed which comprises five typical flight operational situations. Thesituations are combined with three different aircraft types so that a total of 15 varian ts is considered.

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Since no reference results are available, the results of three different software packages are compared.
If these results are within a margin of 0.1 dB, it is assumed that the CNOSSOS -EU algorithms areimplemented correctly. In addition to the test case a standardized interface for data exchange
according to the German standard DIN 45687 [5] was developed.

3. CONCLUSIONSAccording to the EU Environmental Noise Directive environmental noise pollution is determined
across Europe. For ensuring comparability of noise maps, a coherent and practical set of parameters
is required. Therefore, national default input data is added, e.g. for trams and flight profiles for aircraft.
Within the framework of the transposition of CNOSSOS-EU in Germany several issues are clarified
and interpretation gaps concerning the calculation algorithm are closed. For instance, thedetermination of the number of schools and hospitals. The software implementation of the noise
calculation method has to be quality assured. For this purpose, test cases are developed and astandardized interface for data exchange is defined. These modifications enable a consistent andpractical calculation of environmental noise. The implementation of CNOSSOS -EU in Germany [6]therefore meets the requirements of the Environmental Noise Directive and fits the purpose of noisemapping.

REFERENCES
1 Umweltbundesamt (German Environment Agency), Umweltbewusstsein in Deutschland 2016
(Environmental Awareness in Germany 2016), Dessau-Rosslau (2017).
2 Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 June 2002 relating to theassessment and management of environmental noise - Declaration by the Commission in the Conciliation
Committee on the Directive relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise, Official
Journal of the European Communities, L 189, 18.07.2002, p. 12–25.
3 Commission Directive (EU) 2015/996 of 19 May 2015 establishing common noise assessment methods
according to Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Official Journal of theEuropean Communities, L 168, 01.07.2015, p. 1–823.
4 Vogelsang B.M., Myck T.: Neues Fluglärm-Berechnungsverfahren für den Vollzug der EUUmgebungslärmrichtlinie in Deutschland (New aircraft noise calculation procedure for the enforcementof the EU Environmental Noise Directive), Lärmbekämpfung, Band 13 (2018), Nr. 4, pp. 114-119
5 DIN 45687:2006-05, Akustik - Software-Erzeugnisse zur Berechnung der Geräuschimmission im Freien- Qualitätsanforderungen und Prüfbestimmungen (Acoustics - Software products for the calculation of
the sound propagation outdoors - Quality requirements and test conditions), Beuth Verlag, Berlin (2006).
6 Bekanntmachung der Berechnungsverfahren für den Umgebungslärm nach § 5 Absatz 1 der Verordnungüber die Lärmkartierung (34. BImSchV) - Berechnungsmethode für den Umgebungslärm vonbodennahen Quellen (Straßen, Schienenwege, Industrie und Gewerbe) (BUB) - Berechnungsmethode fürden Umgebungslärm von Flugplätzen (BUF) - Berechnungsmethode zur Ermittlung der Belastetenzahlen
durch Umgebungslärm (BEB) - Datenbank für die Berechnungsmethode für den Umgebungslärm vonbodennahen Quellen (Straßen, Schienenwege, Industrie und Gewerbe) (BUB-D) - Datenbank für die
Berechnungsmethode für den Umgebungslärm von Flugplätzen (BUF-D) vom 20. November 2018,
Bundesanzeiger AT vom 28.12.2018

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