Track Sound Register: Noise Production Ceilings for Railways and Roads

A legislative amendment on 1 July 2012 established noise production ceilings (GPPs) for main railways and national roads. The dataset, known as the Sound Register, is maintained by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and includes calculated GPPs, their status, source data, and annual realization values. The register is updated based on decision-making under the Environmental Management Act, aiming to be the most current representation of valid noise limits.

Use Cases

• Monitor compliance with legal noise limits based on the reported noise production ceilings (GPPs).
• Analyze trends in transportation noise over time based on the annual realization values.
• Audit the calculation and decision-making process for noise limits based on the included source data and status information.

Strengths

• Includes legally mandated noise production ceilings (GPPs) established by a 2012 legislative amendment.
• Contains multiple related data components: calculated GPPs, their status, source data, and annual realization values.
• Maintained with a goal of daily updates to reflect the most current valid noise limits.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties (Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations)

Collection Method

Calculated and reported based on legislation and infrastructure manager inputs.

Time Range

Data collection began after 1 July 2012; includes annual realization values.

Freshness

Update frequency is described as theoretically daily, but practice suggests less frequent updates.

Geography

Likely covers national roads and main railways in the Netherlands.