LIFE+2010 QUADMAP PROJECT (QUIET AREAS DEFI- NITION AND MANAGEMENT IN ACTION PLANS): THE NEW METHODOLOGY OBTAINED AFTER APPLYING THE OPTIMIZATION PROCEDURES

Current practices about selection, assessment and management of Quiet Areas in EU Countries, though regulated by the EU Directive 49/2002/EC on Environmental Noise, appear to be extremely fragmented and inhomogeneous. In fact, each country during past years adopted a set of strategies strictly related to their specific contexts. Proposing a solution to overcome the lack of harmonized methodologies for Quiet Areas is the main aim of QUADMAP (QUiet Areas Definition and Management in Action Plans) project. The results of the project will facilitate urban planners to apply standard procedures for identification, delimitation and prioritization of Quiet Urban Areas. The project has a high level of demonstrativeness guaranteed by the fact that proposed methodology will be tested on a number of case study areas. In particular, it will be tested in a set of pilot cases in Italy, Spain, and in The Netherlands. The project started on 1st September 2011 and lasts three years. At the end of 2012 the harmonized methodology has been defined. The proposed procedures have been tested since February 2013 in all pilot cases and, recently, the methodology has been optimized, in line with experiences gained during data collection within the pilot cases and analysis of the ante-operam scenarios. In this paper the optimization procedures are described with regards to these experiences gained in the pilot cases.