Published : Apr 24,
2013 Last modified : Apr 23, 2013 06:56
PM - Do you want to make some noise about
your campaign for a quiet environment? Or
do you want to show others how your community
solved a noise problem and created a healthier
soundscape? The European Soundscape Award
2013 aims to draw attention to these kinds
of projects.
Exposure to environmental
noise – defined as unwanted or harmful sound
– is not only annoying, it can also lead
to sleep disturbance and other health problems
such as hypertension. Noise is associated
with many human activities, but it is noise
from traffic which has the highest health
impact across Europe. Evidence shows that
access to quiet environments or natural
areas where people can listen to birds and
the wind in the trees can have a positive
effect on mental and physical health.
The European Environment
Agency (EEA) and the Noise Abatement Societies
of the Netherlands and UK want to raise
awareness about the importance of a healthy
soundscape and reward European initiatives
in the field of noise control or soundscape
management. From 24 April 2013, the International
Noise Awareness Day, entries are invited
for any product, campaign, innovation or
scheme offering a creative solution to a
noise problem. The award will be presented
at a ceremony in Utrecht on 5th November
2013.
For more information
on how to submit an application, visit the
European Soundscape Award webpage. The deadline
for submissions is 6th September 2013.
Last year’s winners
A German consortium
led by the Technical University of Berlin
won the European Soundscape Award 2012 for
the remodelling of Nauener Platz, a city
park in Berlin. The winning project used
a range of measures to create a healthier
soundscape, including:
• Building a 1.5 m sound
barrier made of stone and plants.
• Installing devices in sculptures and benches
which played recorded sounds of birds and
water.
• Redesigning the park to include more attractive
playgrounds, sports areas and green spaces
which increased the lively sounds from human
activities.
The runner-up award
was presented to Estonian NGO Ökokratt
for its educational project ‘Noise is not
music’. The project raised awareness of
the adverse impacts of noise among children
and young people and involved more than
100 teachers and 30,000 children from 214
different schools.
+ More
Independent evaluation
commends EEA impact and efficiency
Published : Apr 08,
2013 Last modified : Apr 11, 2013 11:25
AM - The European Environment Agency (EEA)
has been given overall good marks in an
independent evaluation of its work, which
has concluded that the European body is
a well-functioning and effective organisation.
European Environment
Agency
the EEA and Eionet are
well established and well-functioning structures,
delivering comprehensive and reliable outputs
which, to a large extent, satisfy stakeholders'
needs.
Evaluation of the European
Environment Agency by COWI
The EEA is required
to carry out an evaluation every 5 years
to ensure it is working in an effective
and efficient way. This evaluation covered
the period 2008-2012, coinciding with the
multi-annual work programme of the Agency.
Independent management
consultants COWI assessed the effectiveness
of the EEA, and the organisation’s efficiency.
Effectiveness covers the EEA’s impact in
the wider world, assessing needs of and
satisfaction with EEA outputs among stakeholders,
while the efficiency part examined the internal
working processes of the EEA and cooperative
relations within the European Environment
Information and Observation Network (Eionet).
The evaluation was steered by the EEA Management
Board.
The evaluation report
concludes:
"the EEA and Eionet
are well established and well-functioning
structures, delivering comprehensive and
reliable outputs which, to a large extent,
satisfy stakeholders' needs. The qualitative
assessment inherent in this evaluation indicates
that the EEA continues to be the most effective
and efficient solution to providing credible
information on the state of the European
environment."
Outputs, such as EEA
reports and datasets, were described as
being of “high quality” by the evaluators,
while methodologies used by the EEA for
defining and compiling data were described
as “state of the art”. Overall, the EEA
was commended for balancing the needs of
different stakeholders at national and European
level.
Internally, the EEA
was found to have well-functioning management
systems. The efficiency part of the evaluation
found that the organisation provided good
value for money for EU taxpayers.
As a network, the EEA
and the Eionet, is stable and functions
well, the report says, although it points
to some working practices which could be
improved.
The report recommends
that the EEA continues to strengthen dialogue
with stakeholders and maintain its high
quality outputs. The planning system used
by the EEA should be reviewed and upgraded,
the report says, while the use of the Scientific
Committee should be reassessed to ensure
enhanced value to EEA’s work.
