THE USE OF LAeq 24 HOUR TO DESCRIBE BASELINE NOISE ENVIRONMENTS

Environmental assessment studies have to be undertaken for a range at major projects which are de ned in Annex 1 of the EC Directive 85/337/EEC.The purpose of this work Is to quantin the environmental impact that may be caused by the project.The problem is always how to de ne "a signi cant environmental impact .In the UK there have been a number of methods used in environmental assessment work to describe the noise impacts and in most of these methods, the noise of the proposed facility is compared against a baseline noise level.This paper examines the various methods that have been used to quantify baseline noise levels which have been de ned by reference to various noise indices and time periods.Some at these methods will be reviewed and assessed in terms of their suitability for providing the decision maker and the public with readily comprehensible information.by which the impact of a scheme can be easily understood.