Interreg cluster project for noise reduction in ports and waterfront cities

Several European waterfront cities are afflicted by through traffic of private and commercial vehicles generated by port activities. Residential areas and susceptible structures such as schools, hospitals, care homes etc. may be exposed, both during the day and at night, to sound pressure levels as high as or sometimes exceeding the critical limits. These values are established by environmental noise regulations for the protection of people and the environment. In this context, a series of projects has been launched, within the 2nd Call of the Interreg IT-FR Marittimo Programme, for the purpose of investigating the peculiarity of this problem and to identify a strategy, or at least a scientific framework, for mitigating environmental noise and noise in the built environment in port cities. The ambitious objective of the projects, named List Port, Report and Decibel, is to develop a methodology for dynamically generating prediction scenarios for the short-medium term as a function of the noise source distribution and intensity scenarios. To do so, a series of acoustic measurement campaigns was conducted simultaneously with traffic counts in four different ports, whereby all the point and nonpoint sources were monitored (from measuring noise produced by moored ships to the acoustic spectra generated by vehicle flows along the ports' entrance and exit roads). The prediction scenarios can thus be implemented dynamically to define specific noise abatement actions for the benefit of those susceptible areas in port cities that are particularly exposed to fluctuations in the soundscape. The projects' activities include the experimental testing of different traffic regulation strategies and infrastructure interventions will also be characterised. The ultimate purpose of the research programmes consists in drawing up a single methodological document, in the form of guidelines, to assist authorities that intend addressing this problem in port cities similar to the cases at hand.