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.