On 26 November 2014 the project group has held a meeting in Bilbao. During that meeting the outcomes of the ante operam survey in the selected pilot areas was discussed and the also the so called midterm report. All participants have been present during the meeting. After the welcome on behalf of Bilbao the chair Mr Francesco Borchi elucidated the midterm report that was sent to all partners. The main conclusions regarding this midterm report are (briefly):
- The questionnaires will be published on this website as well
- The website will be completed with presentations held in Bilbao
- The website will be completed with presentations translated into Dutch and Spanish (before end 2014)
- LIFE+ stickers are requested at the LIFE+ organisation
- In 2014 a workshop will be held in Florence on quiet urban areas
- More attention will be paid to the role of the Scientific Advisory Committee
After the discussions about the midterm report a presentation was given by Bilbao (Ms Igone Garcia and Ms Itziar Aspuru Soloaga) regarding the two pilot areas. Bilbao strives to create numerous ‘sonic islands’ in their municipality. By Ms Garcia two QUA’s were presented. The General la Torre square which is currently under reconstruction and the peri-urban QUA (Santa Marina). The first is a busy and noisy square that will be refurbished to a more pedestrian friendly area which a fountain that can be operated automatically (software) which hopefully will mas or at least distract the attention from the traffic noise. An impression of the future situation of the General La Torre square can be seen at the PowerPoint presentations elsewhere on this website. The second QUA, santa Marina, a peri-urban area is a very green area with a lot of birds. The noise levels are rather low (< 50 dB) and beside the natural noise that can be heard, the rumble of the city is also be audible. By changing the bio-diversity more wildlife can be atracted. The area is quite attractive for walking, hiking and cycling. More information can be obtained from the presentation.
By Mr Henk Wolfert (DCMR EPA) a brief presentation has been given on the two Rotterdam QUA’s (Southern park and Spinoza Park). The Southern park is an area that has at least 5 sub-areas (walking-resting area, event-area, sports-area, recreative area, garden area). Only the sub-area near the Groen Kruisweg (a busy road) has been surveyed and inventoried. Noise levels are quite low in that area when not staying near to the road. By employing a quiet road surface on the road, the noise situation can be improved. The other park, the Spinoza park is not so quiet because it is surrounded by busy roads. Noise levels are higher than 55 dB Lden. From the surveaays conducted in both areas it was found that some questions can be skipped, they do not deliver reliable results. The indicators found to be the most applicable to describe a quiet area so far are:
- Presency of natural elements
- Accessibility of the QUA
- Presency of visual elements
- Maintenance of the QUA, it should be well kept
- The sound in the QUA should be better compared to the sound in the immediate vicinity of the QUA
By Ms Raffaella Bellomini (Vienrose) the outcomes of the pilots have been presented. Six schoolyards were investigated. These six pilot areas are already mentioned elsewhere on this website. Noise levels are not so low due to the traffic passing on the surrounding roads. Noise produced by the pupils is not considered as annoying by the people living nearby. The survey was simplified in order to request the pupils about their perception. Most of the interviewees are pupils. The others are teachers and parents of the school children. Some interventions that are desigend are vertical gardens (noise barriers with green) and black boards. More information can be found in the presentation elsewhere on this website.
Subsequently UNIFI (Ms Chiara Bartalucci) presented their thoughts about data mining and evaluation in order to see whether the preliminary methodology did work in the pilots. Discussions have been held about the application of a Common Noise Index, the noise gradient, the number of events (NA70 or NA80), including or excluding the noise of children (schoolyards) or not, simplifying the questionnaire, to shorten the questionnaire, determining the data obtained form school children and those obtained from adults and check relialibiliy, consistency and reproducability, et cetera. By Bruit Parif (Mr Piotr Gaudibert) who is repsonsible for the internationalization and valorisation of the project outcomes, a brief explanation was given. Shortly a working group will meet in Paris which will evaluate and discuss this part of the project. The proposed approach will be sent to all partners.
The closing conference of QUADMAP will be held in spring 2015 in Rotterdam, probably in February. The organisation is a responsibility of DMR EPA. It is considered to have a meeting in the beginning of 2014 in Paris in order to discuss the first analysis of the data done by UNIFI. This analysis will be ready end of 2014.
All presentations of the meeting will be published soon at this website in English and partners language (Dutch, Italian, French and Spanish).
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