Environmental Protection and Immission Control – Calculation, Expertise and Reduction of Noise, Air Pollutants and Vibrations

We are consultants and experts and are accredited according to DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025:2018 for tests in the areas of noise and vibration determination, noise measurements on wind turbines, noise and vibrations at the workplace, aircraft noise, building acoustics and in the immission control module. We work nationwide as a measuring institute for the determination of vibrations as well as of emissions and immissions due to noise, announced according to § 29b of the Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG) (listing in ReSyMeSa). Furthermore, we carry out quality tests according to DIN 4109. Wölfel Engineering is certified as a VMPA acoustic testing center. Our DAkkS registration number is D-­PL­-19254-­01­-00.

Building and living space is in short supply, not only in large cities like Hamburg, Berlin or Stuttgart. Therefore, more and more areas have to be developed that were previously out of the question due to high vibration levels, air pollution or excessive noise pollution.

According to a study by the German Federal Environmental Agency, around 75 percent of those surveyed felt that road traffic was already disrupting or annoying in their living environment by 2018. And this is only one of many noise sources. Other noise sources include aircraft noise, rail traffic noise, commercial and industrial noise, neighborhood noise and construction site noise. Depending on their intensity and duration, sound immissions can impair our quality of life and, in the worst case, even be dangerous for humans. The densification of city centers, increasing traffic volumes and a constantly high number of new construction projects result not only in increasing noise pollution but also in poorer air quality and increased vibration levels.

Immission control is therefore becoming more and more important. There are various legal regulations, standards and guidelines – including the German Federal Immission Control Act – with the aim of protecting people and nature in the direct vicinity of the emission sources from adverse effects. In order to ensure compliance with the limit values defined here and, if necessary, to be able to develop effective reduction measures at an early stage, a well-founded calculation or forecast is essential.

When a new road is built or an existing road is substantially modified, the immission limits of the Traffic Noise Protection Ordinance (16. BImSchG) must be taken into account. The aim of the ordinance is to protect people in the immediate vicinity from harmful immissions.

Noise measurements are influenced by many factors such as weather, current traffic volume and background noise. Thus, it is always a snapshot, the results are not reproducible and therefore not legally binding. In addition, future noise immissions often have to be reliably predicted in the approval procedure before the project starts. For this reason, the above-mentioned regulation prescribes the calculation of immission values. Measurements are only used in research to update and improve existing calculation models.

The validated calculation methods take into account all relevant traffic parameters, such as the traffic averaged over one year (average level), permissible maximum speeds, the traffic composition, road surfaces, gradients, rail properties and dispersion conditions. From all of these factors, a rating level for the day (6 am – 10 pm) and a rating level for the night (10 pm – 6 am) is determined. The calculations are usually in favor of the people affected, and therefore tend to overestimate the average traffic noise exposure compared to measurements. If the calculated rating levels are higher than the immission limit values, appropriate noise reduction or sound insulation measures must be taken.