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Today, urbanization and environmental pollution represent major issues of the urban planning agenda and one of the most relevant challenges is constituted by planning environmentally and socially just cities to protect human health and ensure quality of life and well-being. To achieve this goal, noise pollution and the scarcity of quietness in cities have also to be taken into account. In Europe, the importance of quiet areas has been first recognized by the 2002 Environmental Noise Directive and, since then, numerous projects have been developed by the EU Member States to define a common methodology to protect quiet areas. Notwithstanding, according to the European Environment Agency, there is still the need for in-depth research in the field. This paper argues that integrating soundscape in urban planning processes, through the paradigm of “quietness as a commons,” could significantly contribute to fill this gap of knowledge. This assumption is discussed by presenting a novel citizen-driven methodology to analyze, assess and plan urban quiet areas, implemented in a pilot study in Berlin. In detail, this paper illustrates the methods applied, the findings and the first draft of planning guidelines developed with the community to protect existing quiet areas in the pilot area.
Antonella Radicchi (Sun,) studied this question.