CNOSSOS-EU road surface types: Evaluation of the influence of different national values on noise emissions

Abstract Europe is acting to fight noise pollution. The Environmental Noise Directive (2002/49/EC) requires EU Member States to determine the exposure to environmental noise through strategic noise mapping, and elaborate action plans to reduce noise pollution. Road traffic noise is a common environmental noise source; henceforth, EU countries are obliged to produce strategic noise maps for all major roads, railways, airports, and agglomerations, on a 5-year basis. These noise maps are used by national competent authorities to identify priorities for action planning and by the European Commission to globally assess noise exposure across the EU. A thorough investigation is conducted in this article to assess how different road surface types affect road traffic noise levels in selected EU member states which are incorporating CNOSSOS-EU into their national law. It has been done by comparing the nationally published noise data to those published by CNOSSOS-EU in 2021 for various vehicle categories by obtaining the rolling and propulsion noise for each road surface type while ignoring other factors. The aim of this study is to address the deficiency in the assessment and show a comparison between the noise generated from different surface types which can potentially enhance the effectiveness of strategic noise mapping.