Noise action plan of agglomerations: sustainable hypothesis or utopy?

Abstract

European and Italian laws establish that agglomerations of more than 100 000 inhabitants must adopt an action plan in order to manage noise issues and effects. The plan aim is to reduce population exposure to environmental noise, which is defined as the outdoor sound created by human activities, including noise emitted by road traffic, rail traffic and air traffic, and noise from sites of industrial activity. Although acoustic pollution represents one of the main causes of annoyance for inhabitants of urban areas, the political agenda does not acknowledge it among the main environmental issues. Thus, acoustic reclamation is often considered a duty to be accomplished rather than a way to improve quality of life for citizens. Furthermore, financial resources are generally very poor while the acoustic critical situations are numerous and serious in terms of exceeding the limit. In this situation, what is the meaning of an urban area noise action plan? What are the concrete actions that municipalities can realise to reduce urban noise pollution? This study tries to answer these questions, starting from the analysis carried out for the action plan of the city of Turin.

Reducing cardiovascular health impacts from traffic-related noise and air pollution: intervention strategies

“…More recent guidelines are beginning to reflect other impacts on health and wellbeing (BCMOE 2006), but noise-related policy often fails to reflect the scientific health evidence in the way that policy on air pollution does. One way of moving forward on noise-related public health interventions, in the absence of policy change, is to at least ensure that both RTN and TrAP are considered during environmental reviews of new developments and that interventions made in response to one (e.g., TrAP) also maximize reduction of the other (e.g., RTN) (Magri et al 2009). Further research is needed to examine the costeffectiveness, sustainability, health effects, and acceptance of such interventions by the community.…”

Environmental noise – ‘Forgotten’ or ‘Ignored’ pollutant?

“…The Eurocities Position paper on the END noted that, despite the successful implementation of the END and the availability of noise maps and action plans, until then (May 2009) there was little evidence that any significant progress was made in avoiding, preventing and reducing environmental noise [10]. A disconnect between policy, guidance and implementation on the ground has been observed and it has been suggested that the political agenda does not prioritise environmental noise exposure amongst the main environmental issues [11]. Thus, it seems these large scale noise assessments are often considered a duty to be accomplished rather than a real instrument to improve the quality of life for citizens.…”