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Salzburg noise map: how loud is it at your address?

Enter your address and get the official noise levels for that exact spot: day and night, where the noise comes from, and whether it exceeds the thresholds. Salzburg is the only Austrian provincial capital whose airport is mapped inside the city itself. Handy before any viewing.

How to read the map

The map shows the long-term average traffic noise level in 5-decibel zones: once averaged over the whole day (Lden, with evening and night weighted more) and once for the night only (Lnight, 10 pm to 6 am). Green means: below the mapping threshold of 55 dB by day or 45 dB at night, so quiet as far as the official map is concerned.

under 55 dB

Quiet. Below the mapping threshold, typical for old-town lanes without through traffic, for courtyards and for the hillsides of Mönchsberg, Kapuzinerberg and Gaisberg.

55 to 64 dB

Audible but normal on urban residential streets, along the Salzach embankments and in the airport approach area.

65 to 74 dB

Loud. Rudolfskai, Alpenstraße, Vogelweiderstraße, the station area and the western railway line. Soundproof windows make the difference here.

over 75 dB

Very loud. Right next to the A1 and A10 motorways and along the busiest approach roads.

Rule of thumb: most people perceive 10 dB more as twice as loud. And the night counts for more than the day: for sleep, Lnight is the more important value.

From when is it officially too loud?

Two figures help with the classification. The WHO recommends below 53 dB by day and below 45 dB at night for road traffic. Austria additionally sets thresholds for action planning in the Federal Environmental Noise Protection Act, and they depend on the source.

Rail noise is 10 dB and aircraft noise 5 dB higher because both are considered less annoying. If a threshold is exceeded, the responsible bodies examine noise protection measures: in Salzburg mainly the province through its noise action plan and the city for its own roads. This does not create a legal claim to any particular measure. The analysis above classifies your address against exactly these values.

What the map can and cannot do

Full coverage inside the city

Salzburg is one of five Austrian agglomerations. There every road down to the side street is mapped, plus rail, motorway and the airport. We queried 15 districts from the old town to Liefering, Taxham and Sam: all lie inside the mapped agglomeration. So a green area really does mean quiet there.

Traffic only, no neighbours

Mapped are road, motorway, rail and air traffic. Bars, building sites, neighbours or a beer garden in the old town do not appear. The trolleybuses are missing too: they run on electricity and count neither as rail nor as a mapped road source.

Calculated, not measured

The official map is modelled from traffic data (EU Environmental Noise Directive) rather than measured at every address. For orientation that is very reliable.

Patchy outside the agglomeration

Beyond it only the major sources are mapped: the A1 and A10, busy federal and provincial roads, railway lines. Green in Wals-Siezenheim, Anif, Eugendorf or Hallein can therefore also mean "not covered", not guaranteed silence.

Courtyard vs. street side

The value applies to the grid cell. A courtyard-facing flat on a loud axis can still be quiet: only the viewing will tell (open the window!).

Address point inside the building

A geocode usually sits in the middle of the house, but the noise zone ends at the facade. If the point itself lies in no zone, the analysis takes the loudest zone within about 15 m, i.e. the street side, and says so.

Quiet hours in Salzburg: what actually applies?

Unlike Graz, where a dedicated ordinance sets fixed hours for drilling, hammering and mowing, Salzburg has no such city-wide time rule. What applies is the Salzburg State Security Act: under § 28, anyone causing improperly disturbing noise commits an administrative offence, around the clock. The fine is up to 500 euros; in the city of Salzburg the Regional Police Directorate handles the proceedings.

Noise is "improper" when it lacks the consideration one can expect from someone. It is judged case by case, more strictly at night and on Sundays and public holidays. Fixed hours such as 10 pm to 6 am are therefore usually set by the house rules, which apply because the rental or purchase contract refers to them. Building sites follow their own rules from the building permit, not the security act.

What you can do about noise

Talk first

Many cases resolve themselves because the neighbour simply does not know how far the sound carries. An old building in the Neustadt often transmits impact noise remarkably well.

Police for acute cases

For improper noise here and now the police are responsible (emergency number 133). They assess on the spot and can file a report under § 28 of the State Security Act.

Province of Salzburg for traffic noise

For the noise this map shows, the environment department of the province is responsible. It runs the noise action plan, the emission register for road noise and the railway noise remediation programme.

City administration for businesses and building sites

Salzburg is a statutory city, so its administration is also the district authority. It is the right place for noise from a licensed business, from the beer garden next door or from a building site.

Property management for the long run

For recurring noise, write to the property management with the date and time of each incident. A noise log is the most important evidence if it goes further.

Reduce the rent

If noise makes the flat significantly less usable, for instance during months of construction, a rent reduction under § 1096 ABGB may apply. The amount is not fixed by law, it depends on extent and duration. Get advice first: the Salzburg Chamber of Labour and the tenants association advise free of charge.

Incidentally, there is no decibel limit for neighbour noise. It is decided by what is customary in the area and by whether the normal use of the flat is substantially impaired (§ 364 (2) ABGB). Anyone living on the Rudolfskai or in the middle of the old-town bustle has to accept more than someone in a cul-de-sac in Aigen. Decibel thresholds only apply to the traffic noise on this map.

This summary is guidance, not legal advice. And it concerns neighbour noise, which the map above does not show: there it is about road, motorway, rail and air traffic.

What about aircraft noise?

This is where Salzburg is the exception among Austria's provincial capitals. The airport does not sit out in the surroundings like Vienna-Schwechat or Graz-Thalerhof but inside the city, so its mapped noise contour reaches into inhabited districts. In Maxglan and Liefering the official map shows 55 to 59 dB during the day, and the analysis above names "air traffic" as the source there.

For air traffic the threshold is 5 dB higher than for roads, i.e. 65 dB by day and 55 dB at night. That is not a downplaying but follows the assessment of the Federal Environmental Noise Protection Act. More important for the classification is the metric itself: Lden averages over the entire year. A single approach is loud for about a minute and disappears in the annual mean. Anyone living in the approach area clearly hears the individual aircraft, even where the map shows only a mild zone.

A look at the wind direction pays off before a viewing. The runway runs north to south, and depending on the weather aircraft take off and land from one side or the other. Traffic also varies strongly with the season: in winter the charter flights to the ski resorts bring considerably more movements than in autumn.

For the night: Salzburg airport operates daily from 6 am to 11 pm, with a night flight ban in between; particularly loud aircraft types may only fly between 7 am and 8 pm. Rescue and ambulance flights are exempt. That is precisely why the official night map shows no aircraft zone over Salzburg even though the day map does.

Common questions about the noise map

Official map data status: 2022 (next EU mapping round: 2027) · Source: laerminfo.at (BMK), CC BY · Quiet hours: Salzburg State Security Act § 28 · Mapping boundary checked at 15 districts ourselves, August 2026