Learning objectives and structure of the learning unit

Author of the course unit

Diplom-Geographer Axel Lorenzen-Zabel

Axel Lorenzen-Zabel has been working at the University of Rostock for the OpenGeoEdu project since 2017. Here he is responsible for the smooth operation and development of the learning environment.

After studying Geography at the University of Greifswald, he worked as a freelance project assistant in the approval process for offshore wind farms and as a GIS analyst. For the LUCAS 2015 survey on land use and land cover in the European Union he worked as a cartographer in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Learning objectives

Environmental noise is a very interesting topic for many spatial study courses. The following questions are to be answered in this module:

  • What is noise?
  • How many people are affected by ambient environmental noise?
  • How can those affected be involved in noise action planning?
  • Why is ambient environmental noise calculated instead of measured?
  • Which data (formats) are suitable and relevant for the calculation of ambient noise?
  • How are these data generated?
  • How does the calculation work?
  • How can geodata be used to support noise action planning measures?

Structure of the lecture

The lecture briefly summarises essential aspects of noise, especially in the specific context of the EU Environmental Noise Directive. In the exercise, selected aspects of EU environmental noise mapping will be presented and processed with own data.

  • Quiet areas in a municipality
  • Rail noise in Germany
  • Mobile noise mapping