The acoustic climate in the city: an approach to define noise indicators in urban context for a sustainable transport planning

The aim of the research is a first definition of alternative noise indicators that should be able to better characterize the acoustic climate in urban environments and to support a more sustainable transport planning. Through our methodology we have defined a set of “standard sites” by different characteristics, i.e. entities defined by a precise combination of variables characterising the infrastructure, the vehicles and the surrounding environment. This approach was used on two Italian cities, Torino and Vercelli, where som site has been analysed. Some first results concerning the effectiveness of the site selection, the selection of the variables involved in noise production and dispersion and human perception and a first indication about the noise indicators are given.