The Port Noise Analysis and Control in Interreg Italy-France Maritime Programme

In the North Tyrrhenian sea, port noise affects the development of harbour cities on both French and Italian coasts. Tourism, goods transportation and passenger traffic are increasingly limited by noise impact on port cities, which annoys residents and disturbs the sleep of the exposed population. Therefore, the EU has promoted a coor-dinated action to control and reduce port noise in the area through the IT-FR Mari-time programme, with an investment of more than 11 M Euros. Organisations and public institutions from Tuscany, Sardinia, Corsica, Liguria and PACA are sharing this ambitious programme aiming to harbour noise control. Six projects have been funded to develop a recovery strategy and promote collaboration between port stake-holders. REPORT, RUMBLE, MONACUMEN, DECIBEL, LIST and TRIPLO are all projects covering different aspects of port noise in the framework of a coordinated policy over a specific area of the Mediterranean Sea. Each project addresses a specific goal, in accordance with an overall coordinated strategy: RUMBLE deals with large commercial ports, DECIBELwith small touristic harbours, LIST with noise from traf-fic generated by the ports, MONCUMEN with measurements and characterisation, REPORT with modelling and impact prediction, TRIPLO with reaction of the exposed population. The outcomes of these projects are expected to create a decisive turning point, both at territorial and technical level, with relevant benefits for the eligible area of the Maritime IT-FR programme and, more in general, for the whole of Europe.