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.