Evaluation of the benefits of green space on noise-related effects: a health impact assessment on annoyance (ETC HE Report 2024/10)

This report assesses the potential health benefits of reducing noise annoyance from road traffic and railway noise by increasing green space exposure in European agglomerations. Using data from the Environmental Noise Directive (END) and green space availability based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), two scenarios were evaluated: achieving the WHO recommendation for universal access to green spaces (i.e. at least 0.5 hectares within a 300 m or a 5-minute walk from home) or a 10% increase in NDVI. The findings show that increased green space availability could reduce the number of highly noise-annoyed adults by up to 9.6% for road traffic noise and 6.8% for railway noise, potentially preventing almost one million highly annoyed adults in Europe. These results highlight the importance of promoting and enhancing urban green spaces to mitigate noise-related health impacts and improve overall well-being.