Acoustic characterization of pedestrian areas

Paper in proceeding, 2013

Many of the actions that have been proposed to revitalize tourism projects have not taken into account the environmental context and urban heritage in which they have to be developed, threatening the viability of it. One element often overlooked is related to acoustics and how it affects the city and citizens. Our experience allows us to show that these areas with many different noise sources are being subjected to high noise levels. This could lead to social and structural deterioration of these surroundings often characterized as pedestrian areas. Moreover, European Directive 2002/49/EC notes Strategic Noise Maps as a tool for designing action plans against noise pollution, collecting information from road traffic, railway, aircraft and industrial noise. However, pedestrian areas are not taken into account for this study, and, judging by the number of complaints we should consider them as a major source of noise pollution. We propose the development of a project focused on the study of noise impact in an urban pedestrian area like the one in León (Spain). This will let us set out the foundation of sources found in pedestrian areas, which will help to establish a proper methodology for its analysis as part of noise maps.