billion Euro would be needed to adjust the railway yards to the required noise nuisance limits.
In addition, Railned expects that at least 800 kilometres of track must be provided with noise
barriers to adjust the railway tracks to the required noise nuisance limits (Railned, 2000).
In the Netherlands three noise nuisance zones are defined considering airports, i.e. the 35 Ke8
day zone, the Laeq-26 dB(A) night zone9
and the 47 BKL (noise measurement scale for small
aeroplanes) zone. The latter zone concerns smaller aeroplanes and is applied for the
remaining four regional and small airports used for scheduled line services and charters. The
first two zones are relevant when considering larger civil aeroplanes and are applied for
Schiphol and Maastricht. For Schiphol however, a larger zone than the 35 Ke zone, called the
protection zone, should be used to calculate indirect land use.
The protection zone reflects the indirect land use claim by Schiphol caused by noise nuisance.
Within this zone it is forbidden to build new houses or other buildings with functions
sensitive to noise, such as hospitals and schools. However, it is allowed to replace existing
houses within this area. Moreover, within this area no restrictions exist for the development
of industrial sites. According to Nyfer (1999) the surface of this zone is 258.0 km2
. This
figure should be decreased with the internal area of the airport, equal to 26.8 km2
, to prevent
double counting. For the remainder of the protection zone it is possible to separate the area
into ‘inside built-up area’ (8.4 km2
) and ‘outside built-up area’ (223.5 km2
). The net figure for
the area outside the built-up area (excluding water and nature) of the protection zone is 144.7
km2
and will be included in the financial valuation for land with limited land use possibilities
outside the built-up area.
The indirect land use claim by the regional and the small airports is determined by noise
nuisance contour maps, obtained via the Dutch Aviation Authority (Rijks Luchtvaart Dienst).
Only the indirect land use claims by the airports used for scheduled line services and charters
(Maastricht, Rotterdam, Eelde, Twente and Eindhoven) are included in the financial
valuation.10 In determining the net area of indirect land use claims outside built-up areas for
those regional airports, the same ratio is used as applied for the protection zone of Schiphol
(outside built-up area 40.2 km2
and within built-up area 3.3 km2
).
Free sight zones
For waterways a free sight zone for ships over the riverbanks has to be taken into account in
order to ensure safety of traffic. The width of the free sight zone on the banks varies from 10
to 30 metres, depending on the type of ship that is allowed on the waterway and the level of
urbanisation of the area. Applying these guidelines – with the exclusion of fairways in seas
and large lakes that offer adequate sight – the indirect land use claim by waterways (rivers
and canals) is about 215.8 km2
. Note here that the foreland of rivers usually remains unbuilt
due to flood risks. There might therefore be an overestimation of the indirect land claims by
waterways. The indirect land use claim by rivers is, however, less then 20% of the total