Abstract
Abstract Since the 90s, quiet areas have commonly been considered as places to be acoustically preserved or where acoustic interventions should be implemented to reduce noise levels. With the enforcement of the Environmental Noise Directive in 2002, a formal definition of a ‘quiet area in agglomeration’ and a ‘quiet area in open country’ was established. However, many Member States complained about the absence of guidelines regarding the identification and management of quiet areas. The LIFE QUiet Areas Definition and Management in Action Plans (QUADMAP) project started in 2011 to contribute to the Directive’s incomplete requirements for quiet areas. The project’s main result has been the introduction of a flexible methodology for the selection, analysis and management of quiet areas in agglomeration in which both acoustic and nonacoustic parameters are evaluated. The current paper illustrates the analyses carried out on the data collected during the application of the selection, analysis and management phases of the developed methodology in the different pilot cases selected during the Project. Mentioned analysis are aimed at verifying the benefits of the proposed complementary selection criteria (‘relative quiet urban areas’ identification criteria and ‘homogeneous urban areas’ subdivision criteria), at defining the measurement periods most representative of the areas and the acoustic and nonacoustic parameters to be considered as the most significant.
Highlights
1.1 Environmental noise problemNoise is a major environmental issue, especially in urban areas, as it affects large numbers of people
According to the Environmental Noise Guidelines published in October 2018 by the World Health Organization [45], at least 100 million people in the EU are affected by road traffic noise and in western Europe alone at least 1.6 million healthy years of life are lost as a result of road traffic noise
In the current Section some information about the QUADMAP Project are reported, together with a brief description of the implemented methodology in order to introduce the analysis described
Summary
1.1 Environmental noise problemNoise is a major environmental issue, especially in urban areas, as it affects large numbers of people. According to the Environmental Noise Guidelines published in October 2018 by the World Health Organization [45], at least 100 million people in the EU are affected by road traffic noise and in western Europe alone at least 1.6 million healthy years of life are lost as a result of road traffic noise. The possible effects of noise exposure are further substantiated by a report from the European Environment Agency [12] which states that the exposure to excessive noise results in 8 million EU citizens suffering from sleep disturbance, 125 million people affected by noise levels greater than 55 dB(A), over 900,000 cases of hypertension and at least 43,000 hospitalisations per year.
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