Abstract
Within the frame of European directive 2002/49 for Strategic Noise Mapping and the relevant environmental Noise Action Plans, which included preparation for the management of environmental noise and the rehabilitation of the sound environment, Greece had the opportunity to develop an innovative and comprehensive methodology to analyze the sound environments of several urban and semi-urban residential neighborhoods in the large and medium-size cities of the country e.g., Volos, Larissa, Heraklion, Chania, Agrinio, Corfu, and Thessaloniki, between 2012 and 2016. This paper presents the determined multidisciplinary approach, showing how the environmental noise data are cross-analyzed with urban and architectural data and perception descriptors by inhabitants. Furthermore, it shows how these specific results have been implemented in the developed noise actions plans that have been proposed to the authorities for immediate implementation. Finally, the paper discusses the necessary development of this approach to reduce noise exposure problems, as well as assist the cities in their evolution toward the introduction of a sustainable urban sound environment.
Highlights
The first scientific works on sound environment can be traced back to the essays of the Canadian composer R
As described by the European directives, the noise action plan is determined in order to reduce noise exposure of the inhabitants
This work is illustrated on an area of the city that is decomposed according to the three dimensions of the sound environment that we have described in the introduction: the dimensions of the environment, the social practice, and the soundscape
Summary
The first scientific works on sound environment can be traced back to the essays of the Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer in his book “The tuning of the world” [1], which was the first to discuss the neologism of soundscape in order to describe “an environment of sound (or sonic environment) with emphasis on the way it’s perceived and understood by the individual, or by a society”. Since this first definition, the notion of sound environment had the objective of characterizing the perception by a group of individuals, which depends on a spatial context and a particular culture. Within the context of the transport outburst (cars, buses, railways, aircrafts, etc.) in Europe and other industrialized countries, the first crises in the energy field, have awakened different social groups and research teams toward an environmental conscience that marked the beginnings of environmental noise research.
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