Managing risk by utilising an integrated approach to quality assurance during strategic noise mapping

With the proclamation of the END (2002/49/EC), the process of noise mapping and action planning has begun around Europe. As the development of strategic noise maps is arguably a new experience for many end-users, the first round of noise mapping could lead to uncertainties within many aspects of the process. Noise maps represent a baseline for the implementation of noise management systems and systematic errors within the noise maps could reduce the effective implementation of the whole management system. The extensive range of data inputs required in strategic noise mapping are usually obtained from different data sources and as such, cataloguing with the use of metadata is key. The implementation of a quality assurance system is imperative to maintain consistency between technicians and within multi-disciplinary teams. It is also essential to ensure the control of processes and the ability to review inputs, intermediaries and deliverables. A similar approach may also be applied to calculation and post processing of noise levels. This paper presents collective experience of the implementation of quality assurance procedures used in several EU countries during the successful completion of projects within the first round of mapping.