Continued exposure to unacceptable levels of noise is associated with a wide range of adverse impacts on human health, public amenity, productivity and ecosystems. With increasing demand for all forms of transport and development, there is continued erosion of areas that are free from the intrusion of noise created by road, rail and air travel, industry, power generation and mechanised and large scale recreational activity. While the adverse impacts of high levels of noise on health, quality of life and well-being are relatively well understood and have been specifically acknowledged in environmental noise policy-making in England for over 45 years, the beneficial effects of access to quiet are less well understood and are therefore often overlooked or undervalued in decision-making. The main aim of this study (funded by the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) was therefore to develop a framework or methodology that can be systematically and consistently applied by policy-makers to assess the benefits that people derive from quiet areas or conversely, the costs of loss of access to these areas. Essentially, this requires a value to be placed on how residents, workers and visitors value publicly accessible quiet areas. Based on a comprehensive review of the literature, this paper identifies the range of services and benefits provided by quiet areas and assesses the potential for using recent advances in the quantification and valuation of environmental noise impacts to derive an economic value of quiet areas.
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