Quiet areas inside historical city centers

Noise pollution is one of the major environmental stressor affecting human health and in general quality of life in urban areas. Transport and traffic noise are also considered as the main responsible sources for this noise pollution. With specific reference to the inner and historical parts of a city it is worth to emphasize that several access restrictions schemes for road traffic have been applied worldwide in the last years and these projects led to important results in terms of urban noise control. However these parts of the city are also characterized by intensive presence of shops, pubs, restaurants, craftsmen, by high density of population, by popular and crowded touristic paths and not less important by a scarcity of large parks and classic green and natural areas. The overall effect is a soundscape that can be classified by some as “vibrant” but at the same time considered “annoying” by others in the day-by-day practice. To compensate the negative effects of urban noise, a Urban Sound Plan should then impose, for these parts of the city, the identification of quite areas for the psychological and psychophysical restoration of residents/tourists and then valorize these areas with focused renewal projects. In this paper is presented a study in which this policy has been applied to the historical center of the city of Naples in Italy. Quantitative and qualitative analysis have permitted to identify the potentiality of cloisters, courtyards inside accessible historical buildings, gardens, small squares, monumental areas to be considered as Quiets Areas. A classification based on the overall characteristics is then proposed.