Acoustic ModellingTool for managing noise pollution
The Action Plan is a tool aimed at managing noise pollution issues and their effects, including, where necessary, noise reduction measures. The measures of the Action Plan are left to the discretion of the competent authorities but must correspond to the priorities that may arise from exceeding the relevant limit values or other criteria chosen by the Member States. These noise reduction measures are applied in particular to the areas identified by the Strategic Noise Mapping.
The entities required to prepare the Action Plan are agglomerations with more than 100’000 inhabitants and the companies and bodies managing public transport services with road axes on which more than 3’000’000 vehicles per year transit, railway axes on which more than 30’000 convoys per year transit and the main airports (update as of March 2024 on the implementation status of Directive 2002/49/EC pursuant to Legislative Decree 194/05). The authority identified by the Region or the Autonomous Province, on the basis of the results of the strategic noise maps, must prepare and transmit the Action Plan to the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE). The Action Plans incorporate and update the noise containment and abatement plans produced for the operation of public transport services, the municipal noise reduction plans and the regional three-year intervention plans for noise pollution reclamation adopted pursuant to Articles 3, paragraph 1, letter i), 10, paragraph 5, 7 and 4, paragraph 2, of Law 447/1995.
If the entities fail to prepare the plan, the Decree provides for penalties ranging from 30’000€ to 180’000€ for each month of delay. Both for the Action Plan and for the Strategic Noise Mapping, the competent Region or Autonomous Province will impose the administrative pecuniary sanctions provided for by the Decree. The validity of the Action Plan is 5 years.
