Environmental noise pollution is still one of the most important concerns for society, and transportation is seen as a primary source of this concern. Accepting mobility as a basic human need and as an essential precondition for maintaining economic prosperity and wealth in an enlarging Europe, it is clear that the adverse effects of noise must be reduced while facing a continued increase in freight and passenger transport. Research is a key element in reducing such adverse effects.

Therefore, the European Commission has supported the creation of the project "CALM II" which aims at enhanced and cross-sectoral coordination of the European transport noise research in all related research areas and with full involvement of the most relevant stakeholders. CALM II shall facilitate the networking of organisations, the coordination of activities and the exchange and dissemination of knowledge including the most up-to-date information on recent and current research activities.

This BlueBOOK is the result of a survey of European research projects in the field of environmental noise. It has been created by CALM II and is based on the CALM project database which is freely accessible on the CALM website. The BlueBOOK does not claim to constitute a complete inventory of such research, but it does provide an overview of essential noise research activities in Europe started before March 2006. Generally, the survey had to be limited to projects which have been completed after the year 1999, but some fundamentally important projects completed earlier have also been included. It was also intended that this book would include information of national research projects. However, the data acquired did not enable a comprehensive overview, even though input via the national representatives of the EC Environmental Noise Steering Group was sought.

The BlueBOOK is provided as a printed booklet and as a CD ROM. All the projects contained are related to one (or more) of the seven main topics areas of environmental noise: railway traffic, road transport, air traffic, outdoor equipment, maritime transport, health and socio-economic aspects, assessment of exposure to noise. On the CD ROM, project descriptions can be found either via the sitemap in the topic list related, or via the complete alphabetic list of acronyms. The BlueBOOK CD ROM also contains the CALM Strategy Paper 2004 and the complete project database as available on the CALM website with the status of 31st March 2006.

It is our hope that the book and the CD will be a useful source of information for all who are involved in environmental noise research activities.

April 2006