Noise, Air, Odour and Light – Page 4
Environmental health topics in planning: noise, air quality, kitchen extraction, odour and lighting.
Noise, Air, Odour and Light articles – page 4
263 articlesSky glow, light trespass and glare as separate metrics
Upward light ratio, vertical illuminance, luminous intensity and building luminance each have their own unit, limit and fix. One number is not an assessment.
Emissions standards for biomass and combined heat and power
Combustion plant is assessed twice: once for carbon and once for what leaves the flue. Biomass and gas engines often pass the first test and fail the second.
The damage cost approach to air quality contributions
Air quality contributions are usually calculated from predicted emissions times a published cost per tonne. The errors sit in the assumptions, not the arithmetic.
What an Air Quality Management Area adds to an application
An Air Quality Management Area creates no new consent. It changes which local plan policy applies, lowers the assessment threshold and puts occupier exposure in play.
Duct termination height for a takeaway extraction system
Officers condition the discharge point more than the filter. This covers termination a metre above the ridge, separation from windows and intakes, routing through third party property and maintenance access.
Section 61 prior consent for construction works
A section 61 consent lets a contractor agree methods, hours and noise limits before work starts, instead of waiting for a section 60 notice. Here is what to submit and how it interacts with planning conditions.
Character corrections and the acoustic feature penalty
The acoustic feature correction is the most contested judgement in a plant noise assessment. This sets out the tonality, impulsivity and intermittency corrections, the 9 dB ceiling and how to design the penalty out.
Strategic noise mapping for early site appraisal
Strategic noise mapping tells you whether noise will shape a scheme. It cannot tell you a facade level, and it omits most of the sources that generate objections.
Trees and green infrastructure as air quality mitigation
Trees deposit pollutants and also change how a street ventilates. In a canyon the second effect dominates, which is why planting belongs in an assessment as a co-benefit.
Diffusion tubes against continuous analysers
Diffusion tubes give an adjusted monthly mean for nitrogen dioxide. Analysers give hourly reference data. The question is whether tubes are adequate for the assessment you have to write.
Sky glow, dark skies and upward light ratio
Upward light ratio only counts the light a fitting throws above the horizontal. In a dark rural setting, the light bouncing off a wet yard can do as much to the sky as the fitting ever did.
Bioaerosols and separation distance from composting
The standoff figure quoted at every composting inquiry is a screening trigger, not a standard. Knowing what it triggers, and what it does not, is the difference between a usable assessment and a stalled application.
Odour from waste transfer and composting facilities
Two regimes look at the same smell. Knowing which one controls what stops a planning application collapsing into an argument the environmental permit was going to settle anyway.
External amenity noise criteria for gardens and balconies
The external amenity criterion is a guideline range, not a standard, and it was never written for a sixth-floor balcony on a main road. Knowing that is the difference between a workable case and a refusal.
Refuse collection and delivery noise at unsocial hours
Reversing alarms, tail lifts, shutters and cages over block paving are the noise. Designing those out is what supports an earlier delivery hour than the standard condition.
Music noise level conditions and how they work
A music noise condition needs a descriptor, a reference level, a position and a method. Inaudibility conditions fail all four tests and leave an operator permanently exposed.
Choosing survey dates that produce valid data
A baseline measured in the wrong week describes a place that does not exist. Choosing survey dates, recording weather and knowing when the data has to be thrown away.
Noise measurement uncertainty and how to report it
Saying the instrument was calibrated is not an uncertainty statement. Here is how to combine the contributors, report a range, and decide when the uncertainty changes the conclusion.
Tonality: the reference method and the penalty applied
A tonality correction of 2 to 6 dB often decides whether plant noise reads as an adverse impact. Here is the one third octave reference method, the subjective scale and how to reconcile the two.
Noise conditions: workable limits and verification
Most noise conditions cannot be measured, which makes them unenforceable. Here is the wording that works, and the verification structure that turns a paper limit into a real one.
Biomass and CHP flue height: dispersion and design
Calculate the flue before you draw it. Here is how dispersion, building wake and the Clean Air Act 1993 thresholds set chimney height for biomass and combined heat and power plant.
When an air quality assessment is triggered
No floorspace figure triggers an air quality assessment. Traffic change, combustion plant, new receptors in poor air quality and construction dust do. Here is how to screen a scheme before commissioning modelling.
Assessing an existing factory against proposed homes
Survey a factory for a week and you measure a quiet fortnight. The assessment has to be built on what the operator may lawfully do, not what it happens to be doing now.
Road traffic noise and when a barrier is justified
A barrier only works where it breaks the line of sight, which rules out most upper-floor bedrooms. Layout, orientation and envelope design usually do more than any fence.
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