Noise impact assessment of small harbours

Harbour noise is an issue that in these last years is subject of a research effort financed by the European Union by means of several Programmes, such as FP7, ENPI CBC Med, LIFE and the Interreg Maritime. Within the framework of this last one, six different projects were financed, forming a cluster regarding port noise nuisance. The deep interconnection of the projects, and the efficent networking activities carried out between them, led to interesting findings and strategies in order to tackle the problems that are related with the noise impact of port activities on the surrounding residential areas. In particular, measurement campaigns conducted within the DECIBEL project in the ports of Portoferraio, Isola del Giglio and Olbia clearly showed that noise issues for small ports which do not have cargo handling are definitely different from the ones that affect the largest ports. The main and most disturbing noise sources in these realities are different, and thus are different also the actions that have to be taken in order to deal with the sound pollution they produce. The analysis of the data collected led to the conclusion that customized solutions must be adopted for every small port considered, taking also into account possible environmental and legislative constraints that are often present in small realities that sometimes can even be part of natural parks or ecologically restricted areas.