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Aircraft Noise Protection Areas 2013
Introduction
In a major city like Berlin, the population is subjected to a variety of noise sources. Depending on the duration and intensity of the impact, noise can lead to different problems (further information about the definition and perception of noise is offered under www.berlin.de/umwelt/themen/laerm/ and www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/topics/transport-noise/noise-effects).
For a not insignificant number of residents, the environmental noise produced by various noise sources constitutes the primary environmental impact. A recent measurement of the noise situation in Berlin with respect to traffic noise was carried out in the context of the implementation of the EU Environmental Noise Directive. The extensive results are published under Map 07.05 Strategic Noise Maps (SenStadtUm 2013).
On the one hand, the Noise Mapping Ordinance (Verordnung über die Lärmkartierung, 34th BImSchV) for implementing the EU Environmental Noise Directive is relevant for the subject of aircraft noise. Its results enter inter alia into the assessments on the latest rent index of the State of Berlin.
On the other hand, there is the Law for Protection against Aircraft Noise (Gesetz zum Schutz gegen Fluglärm – FluLärmG). Since its amendment – effective from June 7, 2007 – aircraft noise protection areas are established for all commercial airports with scheduled airline services or charter air traffic, for all military airfields with jet operations and for some other airfields by ordinances of the federal states [§ 4 FluLärmG]. For the first time, the aircraft noise protection area for airfields with nighttime air traffic (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.) also includes a separate nighttime protection zone.
The purposes of the Aircraft Noise Protection Law also include regulating land use restrictions and structural sound insulation as well as reimbursement of expenses for structural sound insulation measures and building restrictions in the noise protection area in the surroundings of airfields.
Berlin Tegel Airport (TXL)
There is currently no need to re-establish the existing noise protection area for Berlin Tegel Airport. The existing noise protection area continues to apply and is represented here in the map.
According to the amended Aircraft Noise Protection Law, a noise protection area is not to be re-established if the airfield in question is to be closed within a period of 10 years after it has become a requirement to establish a noise protection area and the administrative procedure for its closure has already commenced [§ 4 (7) FluLärmG]. This applies to Berlin Tegel Airport.
Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER)
Two independent regulations apply to BER Airport:
On the one hand, the protection and compensation areas according to the planning approval of 2004, including the plan amendment of 2009, and on the other hand the noise protection area according to the Aircraft Noise Protection Law of 2007. They differ inter alia in the claim areas and the protection goals.
While usually the protection areas and claims from the planning approval and plan amendment decisions are greater, in individual cases, depending on the definition of the land uses, reimbursement claims for structural sound insulation measures according to the FluLärmG may be more extensive.
Due to the timing of its planning approval, the development of Berlin Schönefeld Airport (SXF) into Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) is, from a legal perspective, not the construction of a new airfield respectively the substantially structurally expansion. In fact, § 2 (2) FluLärmG for existing airfields has to be applied.
With the flight paths underlying the planning approval, but with a new forecast for the flight movements, a new noise protection area was additionally established in 2013 for the fully developed Berlin Brandenburg Airport.
The flight paths established by the federal oversight agency for air traffic control (Bundesaufsichtsamt für Flugsicherung) partly differ significantly from those of the planning approval. New flight procedures have also been taken into account, which are safe and technically feasible but have yet to prove themselves in practice. For this purpose, the flight paths and procedures actually used in the first two full successive flight plan periods will be evaluated after BER is put into operation.
Based on the data of the first full year of operation (two successive flight plan periods), the Brandenburg approval authority will subsequently carry out an overall redetermination of the protection and compensation areas hitherto established according to the planning approval (not shown here on the map).
Independently, the noise protection area will be re-established on the same basis according to the FluLärmG.
Note: Further information e.g. on the determination of the noise protection area or on reimbursement of expenses for structural sound insulation measures according to the FluLärmG can be found at the Ministry of Rural Development, the Environment and Agriculture of the State of Brandenburg (Ministerium für Ländliche Entwicklung, Umwelt und Landwirtschaft des Landes Brandenburg). Further information on planning approval and on the noise protection policy around BER Airport can be found at the State Office for Construction and Transport (Landesamt für Bauen und Verkehr, LBV).