Bilbao Sound Strategy: A Comprehensive, Flexible and Balanced Approach

The City Council of Bilbao was a pioneer municipality in noise management being the first local governments in Spain with its own Noise Ordinance, Noise Map and monitoring system. However, the first approach of the policy in noise had a clear sectoral character and non-proactive. Nowadays, the City Council considers that one of the keys to valorize the city and its spaces implies the management of their sound dimension. To this end, the City Council is deploying a Sound Strategy that aims to make Bilbao a space for sounds coexistence providing quality of life to citizens. The municipality is leading a comprehensive, flexible and balanced management of the sound dimension of Bilbao through commitment shared with the different agents of city and citizenship. In this paper the key elements of the strategy are presented, as well as the services and applications that contribute to it, and the instruments that help its implementation and development.