STATUS OF APPROVAL OF MUNICIPAL ACOUSTIC ACOUSTIC PLANS

Update date
Authors

Gabriele Bellabarba, Francesca Sacchetti

Abstract

The municipal noise abatement plan is envisaged by the legislation as a fundamental tool for managing and resolving noise pollution problems in the area; this Plan represents the act consequent to the main fulfillment by the municipalities: the acoustic classification plan. The redevelopment plan must be coordinated with all the other tools provided for the management of the municipal territory and must incorporate the contents of the transport infrastructure noise containment and abatement plans. As of 2024, this planning tool is poorly used across the entire national territory: only 66 municipalities of the 5,106 with acoustic classification have approved the Noise Remediation Plan, confirming a percentage of just over 1% over the years.

Description

The indicator reports, for each autonomous region/province, the number of municipalities with a noise classification plan, the number of municipalities that have approved a noise abatement plan, the list of the same and the relative year of approval of the plan.

Purpose

Evaluate the state of implementation of the national legislation on noise with reference to the activities of the municipal administrations regarding planning and programming of remediation activities.

Policy relevance and utility for users
It is of national scope or applicable to environmental issues at the regional level but of national significance.
It is able to describe the trend without necessarily providing an evaluation of it.
It is simple and easy to interpret.
It provides a representative overview of environmental conditions, environmental pressures, and societal responses.
Analytical soundness
Presents reliability and validity of measurement and data collection methods
Temporal comparability
Spatial comparability
Measurability (data)
Adequately documented and of known quality
Updated at regular intervals in accordance with reliable procedures
Readily available or made available at a reasonable cost/benefit ratio
An “adequate” spatial coverage
An “appropriate” temporal coverage
Main regulatory references and objectives

LQ 447/1995, Prime Ministerial Decree 14/11/1997

DPSIR
Response
Indicator type
Descriptive (A)
References

APAT CTN_AGF 2005, Review of the Guidelines for Municipal Noise Remediation Plans

Limitations

--

Further actions

--

Data source

ARPA/APPA (Regional and Autonomous Province Agencies for Environmental Protection)

Data collection frequency
Yearly
Data availabilty

The data for the development of the indicator are present in the Noise Observatory database, which can be populated by the ARPA/APPA representatives and can also be consulted by the public on the site. Https://agentifisici. isprambiente. it/associazionetoriorumore_public/home. php

Spatial coverage

National, Regional (20/20)

Time coverage

update as of 12/31/2024

Processing methodology

The indicator is given by the number of municipalities that have approved the noise abatement plan.

Update frequency
Year
Data quality

The indicator is relevant in representing the degree of attention of municipal administrations regarding the management and resolution of noise pollution problems found in their municipal territory. The source of the data is reliable, the collection methodology is homogeneous across the entire national territory and the data is validated, allowing comparability in space and time. Good spatial coverage is also guaranteed, as the data relates to all autonomous regions/provinces; the annual update also allows good coverage of the information collected over time.

Status
Poor
Trend
Steady
State assessment/description

The approval of a municipal noise abatement plan, a tool for managing and resolving noise pollution problems in the area envisaged by LQ 447/95, is not widespread and highlights the deficient response on the part of local administrations. This criticality is due to the not yet complete implementation on the national territory of other noise planning tools, in particular the municipal noise classification, to the incomplete updating of national legislation, to the failure to issue specific regulations in some regions regarding the management of noise pollution and to the lack of funds available to municipalities to be able to dedicate to remediation interventions.

Trend assessment/description

It should be noted that while the number of municipalities that have approved the Noise Classification Plan has increased over the years (from 3,304 municipalities in 2009 to 5,106 in 2024), there has not been a corresponding increase in the number of municipalities that have approved the Noise Remediation Plan. 

There are still only 66 municipalities that have approved the noise abatement plan (Table 1).

Comments

As of 2024, only 66 municipalities of the 5,106 with a Noise Classification Plan have approved the Noise Remediation Plan, confirming over the years a very low percentage (stable for several years at 1.3%) of use of this planning tool. 

The Redevelopment Plan is approved mainly in Tuscany, with 40 Plans, equal to 60.6% of the total municipalities with Redevelopment Plan, but only 15.3% of the total municipalities with Acoustic Classification Plan approved in the region itself (Table 1). As can be seen from Figure 1, the Noise Remediation Plan is a planning tool that is not consolidated and/or not applied on the national territory.

Data
Data
Thumbnail
Headline

Figure 1: Municipal noise abatement plans

Data source

Processing by ISPRA based on ARPA/APPA and ISTAT data
 

Headline

Table 1: Municipalities, by Region/Autonomous Province, that have approved the Noise Abatement Plan

Data source

Processing by ISPRA based on ARPA/APPA data