VDI 3886 Blatt 1:2017-07

An odour survey can be required in connection with the assessment of the protection against adverse environmental impacts according to § 5 of the German Federal Immission Control Act and the Ambient Odour Directive (GIRL). This standard represents a decision support for the necessity and (if required) the extent of an odour survey. Therefore, the standard primarily addresses policy-makers, i.e. public authorities responsible for immission control, applicants for installation licences according to the German Federal Immission Control Act, operators of installations subject to licencing, and authorised persons for odour surveys. The reason for an odour assessment can be either a legal immission control or building permit procedure for a plant as well as a monitoring procedure e.g. triggered by neighbour complaints or also a land-use planning procedure. The standard unifies and systematises the approach to the decision on the need for an odour assessment. First of all, test steps are clarified, the answer of which should be possible without measurements. As a rule, the required effort increases with each test step. For individual industries, it may be useful to choose different approaches.