Information on the completion of PHARE
Environmental noise assessment and management

On 12 November 2004, the successful completion of the PHARE project No 2002/0000610-02, entitled "The Assessment and Management of Environmental Noise"" Environmental noise assessment and management.

The project was coordinated by the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic, The project unit of foreign aid and the beneficiary was the Regional Public Health Office of the Slovak Republic, the National Reference Centre for Noise and Vibration. The project lasted 6 months and was fully covered by the Phare pre-accession fund (EU funds). As part of the project, foreign expert aid was provided by the Belgian company AGRIFOR. The project leader of the expert group was Wolfgang Probst, a globally recognized expert on noise and vibration. His team also consisted of two Slovak and one foreign expert. On behalf of MZ SR was the head of the project Zuzana Škublová, sectoral coordinator of foreign assistance and professionally the project was covered by Peter Rybár Þ head of the NRC for noise and vibration and Peter Žtkovič from the Regional Public Health Office of the Slovak Republic.

The project objective was to prepare all necessary technical and human resources for the direct implementation of all regulations concerning Directive 2002/49/EC on the assessment and management of environmental noise in the Slovak Republic. The Directive aims to create a common basis for Europe-wide noise suppression.
The project included the following activities:

  1. Technical and legislative support for the implementation of Directive 2002/49/EC into Slovak legislation.
  2. Development of a detailed methodology for measuring and calculating environmental noise and methodology for developing noise mapping and action plans.

The expert group has based its work on the recommended temporary EU calculation methods, and has developed the adaptation of these recommended methods to Slovak conditions based on a number of comparative and control calculations and field measurements. The methods thus adapted will be issued in the form of expert guidance issued by the Office of Public Health of the Slovak Republic. All achieved results of the project will be published after approval of the final project report, which is to be submitted within three months of the project completion.