strategic policy advice

iSoniq provide regulatory advice and support for strategic bodies responsible for management of environmental noise and supporting data infrastructures:

Assisting with the Drafting of Environmental Noise Regulations (England)

and the drafting of the associated Technical Guidance (aviation) to accompany Regulations. This work involved liaising with policy and legal teams in Defra to ensure policy approaches were technically robust. 

Review of the EEA’s Reporting Mechanism. 

This study considered the policy and technical aspects of the EEA’s Reporting Mechanism, specifically considering the relevance of certain aspects in relation to policy and noise mapping approaches being adopted in England.  This task also included meeting the EEA to highlight weaknesses in the current Reporting Mechanism and highlighting remedial options.

Technical architecture of Noise Mapping England (NME) programme

including Designing the NME Programme structure and Project Management process design using PRINCE2 to support the 16 contracts; technical development of specification for GIS dataset requirements for Noise Mapping England project; development of the Central Data Service specification as worked to by IBM/Infoterra.

Design and specification for the CDS analytical and web hosting environment.

Including defining the population exposure assessment methodology and statistical formatting to support Defra’s END return and production of web mapping specification to support public dissemination of noise maps.  Web mapping will include defining thematic mapping format (the colours to allocate to different noise bands).

Management of the NME Technical Support Office

which employed 7 staff and undertook a range of activities including managing the collation and dissemination of all NME project GIS datasets and all preparatory noise modelling files; large format map and dataset production for internal and external use; auditing, risk control and QA checks and provision of technical assistance to 12 different noise mapping contractors to ensure compliance with programme specifications.

Environment Agency – Commercial Data Policy Advice (2002-6).

A number of projects have been delivered to the Environment Agency to support the ongoing development of their data and information exploitation policy.  This has included advising on data pricing policy, quality assurance and commercial market analysis.  The projects have helped the EA comply with complex intellectual property law, information regulation and policy and to self-fund data improvements.

Defra - Air Quality Action Plan Appraisal Helpdesk (2001-6). 

Review of local authority air quality action plans on behalf of Defra.  The project requires the identification and recording of all measures being undertaken by local authorities who have declared an air quality management area.  The project has highlighted strengths and weaknesses in the implementation of action planning under the LAQM regime which can assist in the development of noise action plans.

Various Local Authorities - Local Air Quality Management (1999-2002). 

Over 15 review and assessments were undertaken on behalf of local authorities, including projects identified by Defra as representing best practice (http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/review/examples/southkesteven/skdc.pdf). Implementing the review and assessment process highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of the staged approach.  This knowledge is of relevance to a staged approach to implementing strategic noise maps and then developing more detailed action plans based around detailed mapping of ‘hot spots’

 


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