Noise pollution is currently a cause for concern in all industrialized countries, as it causes nuisance and negative effects on public health and the environment and therefore represents a significant reduction in the quality of life of citizens.

To address the damage caused by noise, the Ministry of the Environment has finalised a Regulation on Noise that goes beyond the transposition of Community Directive 2002/49/EC. This Regulation complements the Noise Law 37/2003 and Royal Decree 1513/2005, which were intended to address a generalized treatment of noise pollution, with special attention to preventive action, acoustic planning in territorial planning and the incorporation of the concepts of environmental noise assessment and management.

The basic objective of this new standard is to ensure common minimum acoustic quality standards at the state level. It also provides for the preparation of strategic noise maps that will make it possible to globally assess the exposure to noise in a given area, taking into account the economic activities that are carried out, as well as criteria of population density and proximity.