Our intrusion map explained
Areas of land disturbed by noise and visual intrusion in England
CPRE’s area of intrusion maps show the countryside which is close enough to towns and cities and major infrastructure such as roads, airports and power stations to be significantly disturbed by visual and noise intrusion. The areas of intrusion shown depend on the distances from various disturbing factors.
Researchers created new maps for 2007 which, compared with maps for the 1960s and 1990s, show how noise and visual intrusion now blights much more of the countryside. The maps allow us accurately to calculate the areas affected. In only 15 years nearly 10% more of England is now suffering from significant intrusion. 50% of England is now classed as disturbed up from 41% in the early 1990s and 26% in the early 1960s.
The distance over which the countryside is disturbed varies from factor to factor. Below is the list of distances from sources of disturbance we have used to define areas of noise and visual intrusion:
Within 3 km of
- very high disturbance roads including most major motorways and A roads with over 75000 vehicles daily
- the edge of large towns (e.g. size of Southampton, Liverpool)
- power stations;
Within 2 km of
- high disturbance roads including sections of some motorways and many urban A roads with 25,000 to 75,000 vehicles daily;
- of the edge of smaller and medium sized towns;
Within 1 km of
- medium disturbance roads including many urban A roads and some rural A roads with 10,000 to 25,000 vehicles daily;
- the published noise contour for airports;
Within 0.5 km of
- relatively low disturbance roads including many rural A roads with 5,000 to 10,000 vehicles daily;
- settlements of 2,500 to 4,000 people;
- mainline railways,
- major power lines, active windfarms;
- active mines and quarries.
