environments Case Report Changing the Urban Sound Environment in Greece: A Guide Based on Selected Case Studies of Strategic Noise Maps (SNM) and Noise Action Plans (NAP) in Medium and Large Urban Areas Konstantinos Vogiatzis 1,* and Nicolas Rémy 2,3 1 Transportation Department, School of the Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, 38221 Volos, Greece 2 Department of Architecture, Polytechnic School, University of Thessaly, 38221 Volos, Greece; [email protected] 3 School of Architecture, Université Grenoble Alpes, Research Unit AAU-CRESSON, F-38036 Grenoble, France * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +30-24210-74170 Received: 14 March 2018; Accepted: 17 May 2018; Published: 28 May 2018 Abstract: Within the frame of European directive 2002/49 for Strategic Noise Mapping and the relevant environmental Noise Action Plans, which included preparation for the management of environmental noise and the rehabilitation of the sound environment, Greece had the opportunity to develop an innovative and comprehensive methodology to analyze the sound environments of several urban and semi-urban residential neighborhoods in the large and medium-size cities of the country e.g., Volos, Larissa, Heraklion, Chania, Agrinio, Corfu, and Thessaloniki, between 2012 and 2016. This paper presents the determined multidisciplinary approach, showing how the environmental noise data are cross-analyzed with urban and architectural data and perception descriptors by inhabitants. Furthermore, it shows how these specific results have been implemented in the developed noise actions plans that have been proposed to the authorities for immediate implementation. Finally, the paper discusses the necessary development of this approach to reduce noise exposure problems, as well as assist the cities in their evolution toward the introduction of a sustainable urban sound environment. Keywords: sound environment; soundscape; traffic noise; environmental noise; European directive 2002/49; sound maps; sound perception; quiet zone; neighborhood; sound identity 1. Introduction The first scientific works on sound environment can be traced back to the essays of the Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer in his book “The tuning of the world” [1], which was the first to discuss the neologism of soundscape in order to describe “an environment of sound (or sonic environment) with emphasis on the way it’s perceived and understood by the individual, or by a society”. Since this first definition, the notion of sound environment had the objective of characterizing the perception by a group of individuals, which also depends on a spatial context and a particular culture. This notion has made it possible to propose a qualitative approach to sounds that analyzes the natural dimensions of these landscapes, and classifies landscapes in order to preserve them. Within the context of the transport outburst (cars, buses, railways, aircrafts, etc.) in Europe and other industrialized countries, the first crises in the energy field, have awakened different social groups and research teams toward an environmental conscience that marked the beginnings of environmental noise research. At the same time, in Grenoble (France), Jean-François Augoyard, of the research center on Sound Environment and built Space (CRESSON), with his young team of acousticians and architects, explored the notion of sound effect in a similar logic, proposing for the first time a repertoire of sound effects [2] Environments 2018, 5, 64; doi:10.3390/environments5060064 www.mdpi.com/journal/environments EnvironmentsEnvironments 2018, 5, x FOR2018 ,PEER5, 64 REVIEW 2 of 18 2 of 19 explored the notion of sound effect in a similar logic, proposing for the first time a repertoire of sound effectsin order [2] toin describeorder to thedescribe interactions the interactions of the sound of the environment sound environment with the actionswith the and actions the perception and of the perceptionthe inhabitants of the inhabitants [3]. 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