The challenges Croatian experts have faced when using various road traffic noise calculation methods before and after joining the EU

Road traffic noise is the second largest environmental stressor in urban areas in Europe after air pollution, and can seriously affect people’s health and quality of life. Therefore, valid noise prediction models are crucial for reducing and managing environmental noise and for assessing citizens’ exposure to excessive noise levels. Croatia is one of the European countries without national methods for noise calculation. From the outset, Croatian engineers used the German standard DIN 18005 and later the German national calculation method RLS-90 for road traffic noise analysis, which is still widely used in Croatian noise control practice. After joining the European Union (EU), Croatia incorporated the recommendations of the Environmental Noise Directive 2002/49/EC (END) into its national legislation. Consequently, the interim assessment methods and CNOSSOS-EU have been used for strategic noise mapping. This paper provides a brief overview of the basic provisions and revisions of the Directive END over the years, as well as the challenges EU Member States have faced in implementing them. It also describes the challenges Croatian experts have encountered when using various road traffic noise calculation methods before and after joining the EU, presents key results from previous scientific studies that have tested these methods in real environments in Croatia, and discusses the results of strategic noise mapping in the country, with emphasis on road traffic noise. Finally, conclusions on this topic are drawn and recommendations for further research are provided.