Life Monza: project description and actions’ updating

The introduction of Low Emission Zones, urban areas subject to road traffic restrictions in order to ensure compliance with the air pollutants limit values set by the European Directive on ambient air quality (2008/50/EC), is a common and well-established action in the administrative government of cities. The impacts on air quality improvement are widely analysed, whereas the effects and benefits concerning the noise have not been addressed in a comprehensive manner. As a consequence, the definition, the criteria for the analysis and the management methods of a Noise Low Emission Zone are not clearly expressed and shared yet. The LIFE MONZA project (Methodologies fOr Noise low emission Zones introduction And management - LIFE15 ENV/IT/000586) addresses these issues. The first objective of the project, co-funded by the European Commission, is to introduce an easy-replicable method for the identification and the management of the Noise Low Emission Zone, an urban area subject to traffic restrictions, whose impacts and benefits regarding noise issues will be analyzed and tested in the pilot area of the city of Monza, located in Northern Italy. Background conditions, structure, objectives of the project and actions’ progress will be discussed in this article

LIFE Monza: comparison between ante and post-operam noise and air quality monitoring activities in a Noise Low Emission Zone

AbstractLIFE MONZA project (Methodologies fOr Noise low emission Zones introduction And management) aims at defining an easy-replicable method for the identification and management of theNoise Low Emission Zones(Noise LEZ), urban areas subject to traffic restrictions, usually introduced in order to ensure compliance with the air pollutants limit values, prescribed by the European Directive on ambient air quality 2008/50/EC, whose impacts and potential benefits regarding noise issues have been taken into account, tested and analysed in a pilot area of the city of Monza, located in North Italy. Noise LEZ has been established in Libertà district, introducing infrastructural interventions carried out by the municipality (top-down actions) and encouraging an active involvement of the citizens, in the definition of a more sustainable lifestyle (bottom-up actions). The analysis of potential effects on noise reduction due to the Noise LEZ can contribute to the implementation of the EU Directive 2002/49/EC, related to the assessment and management of environmental noise (Environmental Noise Directive – END), which introduces noise action plans, designed to manage noise issues and their effects, suggesting the adoption of urban and mobility planning. Noise and air quality monitoring activities have been carried out in pilot area inanteandpost-operamconditions. The monitoring methods, the measurement techniques, the analysis procedures, able to describe the effects due to Noise LEZ establishment, for both the main environmental issues are reported in this paper, as proposals to be applied in other different contexts. Results of monitoring activities highlight a reduction of noise, in term of sound pressure levels, betweenanteandpost-operam, during the day and particularly during the night period, and it is essentially due to the interventions realised. The effect of the Noise LEZ on air pollution seems to be negligible for combustion related pollutant and carbon fractions of PM, due both to the moderate spatial effects of the measures undertaken and confounding factors due to concomitant emission sources and meteorology

Survey on Italian organizations that dropped out of EMAS: analysis of motivations and potential measures to re-launch the scheme

In recent years, the number of the Italian organizations that have decided not to renew EMAS registration has considerably increased. This research arises from the necessity to investigate the phenomenon that has arisen in the last few years. By looking at the data of the “ISPRA Environmental Issues 2009 – 2014”, also in 2009-2010 there had already been an increase in the organizations that did not renew the Registration. However, the phenomenon was not attributed to any specific factor but to a physiological decline following the European negative trend. In the same period, the stability in the number of registrations in Northern Italy and the growth of registered Public Administrations were considered as a strengthening of the scheme and as a new possible fresh start. The economic crisis, re-emerging in 2011 and exploding in all its seriousness in 2012, has critically hit the Italian production system, showing its effects on SMEs (Small & Medium Enterprises) with negative consequences on the participation in EMAS. This specific group of firms has shown the most considerable decline in the number of registrations. In order to better understand the phenomenon, a forum was organized with all the relevant EMAS Stakeholders (EMAS Forum 2015 edition). From the forum, a more complex picture emerged, not justifiable only with the "economic crisis". Therefore, a survey was conducted to examine in depth results of the Forum, targeting all the organizations that decided to withdraw from the EMAS registration between 2010 and December 2015

IL CATASTO ACUSTICO DELLA REGIONE UMBRIA

L’inquinamento acustico rappresenta senza dubbio una delle forme di inquinamento ambientale oggetto di maggiore attenzione. La diffusione sul territorio delle sorgenti e l’ampia varietà delle stesse rende complessa la conoscenza del fenomeno nelle sue di-verse forme, dalle caratteristiche di emissione delle specifiche sorgenti, alla valutazione dell’impatto sull’ambiente, alla stima della popolazione esposta. A differenza di altre fonti di inquinamento, ne consegue anche una certa difficoltà a costruire dei sistemi in-formatici capaci di gestire i dati utili al legislatore, agli amministratori locali e agli enti di controllo nella gestione della problematica, in termini di individuazione delle critici-tà, di finalizzazione delle azioni di controllo e di scelta delle azioni di mitigazione

Models to predict the railway vibrations: preliminary results and comparison with experimental measurements

In recent years, the topic of vibrations in homes and workplaces has grown in importance. In order to reduce the vibrations due to road and rail traffic, several actions can be implemented, some of which are economically very expensive. As a consequence, before implementing any mitigation measures, the availability of appropriate simulation tools able to characterize the effectiveness of the chosen solutions becomes more and more relevant. As part of this work, the development of a predictive software has been addressed, combined with experimental measurements, in order to assess with acceptable accuracy the vibration levels caused by low speed rail transport. Predictions are obtained by characterizing waves propagation through the ground

Propagazione delle vibrazioni ferroviarie: implementazione di modelli previsionali per treni a bassa e alta velocità

Negli ultimi anni si è assistito ad una sempre maggiore sensibilità nei riguardi delle vibrazioni negli ambienti di vita e di lavoro. Al fine di ridurre le vibrazioni do-vute al traffico stradale e ferroviario, è possibile mettere in atto azioni di mitigazio-ne, alcune delle quali possono presentare costi ragguardevoli. Di conseguenza, prima di implementare qualsiasi misura di tal genere, la disponibilità di un modello di cal-colo capace di caratterizzare l’efficacia delle soluzioni scelte ha acquisito una importanza rilevante. Parte del presente lavoro è costituita dallo sviluppo di un modello previsionale, validato da misure sperimentali, e finalizzato alla valutazione dei livelli vibrazionali dovute ai sistemi di trasporto su rotaia: tram, treni a bassa velocità e treni ad alta velocità

REALIZZAZIONE DI UNA BANCA DATI ON-LINE DEI SISTEMI DI MITIGAZIONE ACUSTICA: UN NUOVO STRUMENTO PER PROGETTISTI E CONSULENTI ACUSTICI

Nell’ambito di una collaborazione avviata nel novembre 2009 tra ISPRA, Istituto Superiore per la Ricerca e la Protezione Ambientale, e CIRIAF, Centro Interuniversita-rio per la Ricerca sull’Inquinamento da Agenti Fisici, è stata progettata e realizzata una banca dati contenente informazioni tecniche ed economiche relative ai sistemi di miti-gazione acustica attualmente disponibili sul mercato nazionale, avviandone conseguen-temente il popolamento. Data l’estrema varietà dei prodotti per il controllo del rumore, la banca dati è stata suddivisa in tre macro-categorie in base al settore di utilizzo degli stessi: edilizia, tra-sporti ed industria. L’attività ha richiesto il coinvolgimento delle principali aziende, associazioni di ca-tegoria e consorzi nel campo della mitigazione acustica. Ogni azienda partecipante ha fornito, per ogni prodotto inserito all’interno dei database, il campo di applicazione e al-cune caratteristiche tecniche, economiche e prestazionali. Con tali dati è stato possibile eseguire un primo popolamento significativo. ISPRA è attualmente impegnata nella creazione di uno spazio dedicato sul proprio portale www.isprambiente.gov.it, attraverso il quale tutti gli interessati potranno naviga-re liberamente e gratuitamente tra i prodotti contenuti all’interno della banca dati. La struttura del database on-line sarà tale da permettere agli utenti di effettuare confronti tra i sistemi di mitigazione acustica basandosi, oltre che sulle caratteristiche prestazio-nali dei prodotti, anche su parametri economici, rendendo così più agevole la scelta del-la soluzione progettuale più idonea fra differenti alternative. Tale strumento, inoltre, po-trà essere aggiornato ed ampliato via web dalle stesse aziende partecipanti all’iniziativa, rendendolo dinamico e quindi sempre aggiornato

LIFE MONZA: project description and actions’ updating

The introduction of Low Emission Zones, urban areas subject to road traffic restrictions in order to ensure compliance with the air pollutants limit values set by the European Directive on ambient air quality (2008/50/EC), is a common and well-established action in the administrative government of cities. The impacts on air quality improvement are widely analysed, whereas the effects and benefits concerning the noise have not been addressed in a comprehensive manner. As a consequence, the definition, the criteria for the analysis and the management methods of a Noise Low Emission Zone are not clearly expressed and shared yet. The LIFE MONZA project (Methodologies fOr Noise low emission Zones introduction And management - LIFE15 ENV/IT/000586) addresses these issues. The first objective of the project, co-funded by the European Commission, is to introduce an easy-replicable method for the identification and the management of the Noise Low Emission Zone, an urban area subject to traffic restrictions, whose impacts and benefits regarding noise issues will be analyzed and tested in the pilot area of the city of Monza, located in Northern Italy. Background conditions, structure, objectives of the project and actions’ progress will be discussed in this article