SONOPE – The Disturbance of Shooting Range Noise

According to the government program 2023, civilian shooting ranges are to be significantly increased from the current number. The biggest environmental disadvantage of shooting ranges is the noise. The noise level caused by the civilian shooting range in the environment should be assessed using the Government Decision 53-1997. However, the decision is not up to date because the sound level measurement used the noise levels of individual shots. The measure in question is no longer available in commercial sound level meters because the measure has not received scientific approval. In addition, the decision does not take into account the total number of shots per year (total noise energy). Due to these shortcomings, the decision is to be renewed in 2025. To develop the new regulation, the Ministry of the Environment has established a preparatory working group, whose work will end in 2024. To support the working group’s decision-making, the Ministry of the Environment finances the public research project SONOPE, which is implemented by the Turku University of Applied Sciences’ built environment research group. The goal of the project is to find out with which scale shooting range noise should be measured so that the measurement result predicts the noise’s disruptiveness.

The research has two parts: a psychoacoustic laboratory study and a survey conducted near shooting ranges. Data collection for the study will begin in September 2024. The results will be handed over to the Ministry of the Environment at the end of 2024 and published in 2025.