Review of environmental noise policies and actions in 2017-2021

Abstract

This report provides a continuation of the review of environmental noise policies and economics in 2014-2016, presented at ICBEN 2017 and published in a previous issue of the South Florida Journal of Health. The report addresses the international progress on noise mitigation policies and strategies, best practices, and guidelines for environmental noise management. It focuses on developments in evidence and policy by international bodies and in selected countries. There is a considerable amount of new relevant documents on these topics in international organizations and in some countries since the last ICBEN Congress in 2017. Much of this progress was made in the European Union, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. Developing countries in Latin America, especially Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Paraguay, and Perú are increasingly committed to improve environmental noise policies. Also, China has continued to approach sustainable development goals with respect to noise challenges. Kazakhstan has started to address the noise problem by developing a code to mitigate noise-related impacts.