Disturbance in planned residential
areas
The Dutch ministry of housing, Physical planning and
Environment has made an inventory of the planned
residential areas in the Netherlands. These future residential
areas are mainly located in the Western part of The
Netherlands. The part of The Netherlands that at present is
the most densely populated. An overlay of these areas with the
disturbance maps sound and odour shows that the nuisance in
these areas is higher than the average sound and odour
nuisance in The Netherlands (see figure). Only for the sources
air traffic (sound) and agriculture (odour) the disturbed area
is less than the national average. The explanation for the
higher percentage disturbed area is that the planned
residential areas are mainly located near present build up
areas, places where the percentage disturbed area is already
high. The exceptions can be explained by the restricted physical
planning for residential areas near air ports and the location
of air lanes and agriculture in the rural parts of The
Netherlands.