ISO 17534-1:2015

Overview

ISO 17534-1:2015 - Acoustics - Software for the calculation of sound outdoors - Part 1: Quality requirements and quality assurance - defines quality requirements and verification measures for software that implements outdoor sound calculation methods. The standard’s main objective is to ensure that different quality-assured software products, when applying the same consistently implementable calculation method to identical input data, produce equivalent results within defined tolerances. ISO 17534-1 enables software producers to declare and demonstrate correct implementation and allows users to verify conformity without mandatory third‑party certification. Note: the standard does not address the empirical correctness of a calculation method against physical measurements.

Key topics and technical requirements

• Consistently implementable calculation methods: Requirements for documentation to be complete, unambiguous and sufficiently detailed so software can implement the method reproducibly.
• Documentation and user guidance: Clear product descriptions, user manuals and interfaces describing functionality and calculation options.
• Test cases and test suites: Defined test cases, scenarios and reference results for verification of correct implementation (including P2P - point‑to‑point - ray calculations).
• Quality assurance interface (QA): Data exchange interface and forms to support automated or manual checks, and transparent communication between developers and users.
• Declaration of Conformity (DoC): Standardized reporting (TRC-form and GoI-form) for declaring that software results fall within acceptable deviations.
• Management of software strategies and modified configurations: Rules for when approximation, acceleration techniques or simplifications are used and how to quantify their impact.
• Uncertainty and verification: Procedures to estimate uncertainty caused by ambiguous method descriptions or model simplifications; guidance for statistical evaluation of deviations.
• Checks by users: Recommended verification steps for end users, including running test suites and assessing uncertainty for modified configurations.

Applications

• Verifying and validating environmental noise prediction software and plugins.
• Supporting procurement and acceptance testing for acoustic modeling tools used in urban planning, transport noise assessment, industrial noise permitting and impact studies.
• Enabling transparent developer–user communication about implementation choices, approximation effects and expected deviations.
• Facilitating reproducible results across different software tools and versions.

Who should use this standard

• Acoustic software developers and QA teams
• Environmental acousticians and noise consultants
• Public authorities, regulators and approval bodies specifying modeling tools
• Procurement managers evaluating software conformity and reproducibility

Related standards

• ISO 17534 series (Part 2 and Part 3 - Technical Reports for test cases, QA interface and method-specific guidance)
• ISO 9613-2 (commonly used outdoor sound propagation method referenced in related TRs)

Keywords: ISO 17534-1:2015, acoustics software, outdoor sound calculation, quality assurance, test cases, Declaration of Conformity, QA interface, noise prediction software.