Noise pollution in the open landscape has meanwhile reached a serious level, therefore requiring the integration of strategies for its avoidance into the planning process at an early stage. The effects of noise pollution can be sufficiently assessed to demand consequences for the legal dealing with interventions. Opposed to widely existing approaches it is not enough to only consider noise in the residential environment. The paper describes existing technical possibilities to assess noise effects in the open landscape and their integration into different planning tasks. Together with the impact descriptions the quality of noise emissions has to be described and quantified within the areas affected, at least showing the isophones of mean assessment levels. The included description of the environment has to contain the spatial dispersal of representative acceptors, usually breeding birds, which can serve as suitable indicators. Guide values for the assessment of the impact degree and of compensation measures were derived from reaction patterns of the acceptors. Owing to the high population density in Germany and to the high degree of different environmental pressures a further minimisation and avoidance of noise is more than necessary, requiring both local solutions and systemic changes. The existing traffic behaviour, particularly the demand for a higher travel speed, has to be reassessed in the light of a new discussion of values, considering the aim of a lively environment worth to live in.