Envass News

As a developing country, several growth expansions form part of the day-to-day activities in South Africa. Due to the continuous expansion, selective residential areas are being rezoned into business hotspots where extensive motivation, as well as implication assessments in terms of possible traffic and noise increases are required. As generally requested by the Department of Health, a noise impact assessment is to accompany the application in order to definitively grand or reject the scheme amendment. Thus, as cities grow and areas rezoned, the nature of the area may start to change where residents warrant concerns of increased noise levels or reshaped residential areas.

A noise impact assessment is thus considered an investigation to determine current sound levels and impacts due to the rezoning. The main objective is to determine the ambient conditions of the property and model the expected noise (a possible cause of annoyance or pollution) as generated noise can become a nuisance (or health risk) when not properly managed or mitigated. As noise can become a pollution source or concern to the surrounding land users, it is important to determine the extent of noise generated by the proposed activities and implement measures with the aim of limiting and preventing the noise from being perceived as a nuisance.