Analysis and control of recreational noise in the historical centre of Genoa, Italy

Over the last few years, in the historical centre of Genova, many restaurants, bars and pubs have been established, carrying young people to crowd the alleys and squares of the Old Town, in particular during the night. This situation has brought several annoying problems to the residential population, whose quiet and sleep are disturbed by the recreational noise caused by the venues' customers. An acoustical measurement campaign was carried out in different positions within the historical centre area and results showed very high values of sound pressure levels, particularly during the night-time periods of the week from Thursday to Saturday. Acoustic indicators have been used to characterize the acoustical climate of the area; in particular, L night and Statistical Noise Levels have been calculated to assess sleep disturbance on the residential population caused by noise. Values of the indicators have shown critical situations and, then, permitted to define a limited area as the most exposed to nighttime noise. In this area the annoyance subjectively perceived by the resident population has been evaluated through a questionnaire to fill out by the citizens. Further, the effectiveness of different noise abatement actions (sound absorber plaster/removable covers/soundproofing windows) have been valuated as well as planning actions. Afterwards, these actions have been comparatively analyzed in tenms of feasibility, efficacy and benefit-cost ratio.