Every seventh person in Switzerland is exposed to excessive noise levels. Increasing population and mobility as well as the densification of cities and towns (a requirement by the Swiss spatial planning act) will further aggravate the noise problem in the future. Ensuring spaces with good acoustic quality and protection from excessive noise is not only a valuable resource for the health and well-being of the population, but also constitutes a significant locational advantage. With health awareness and demands on quality of life constantly increasing, there is an urgent need for cities, towns and villages to develop noise abatement policies that are effective and ensure spaces of acoustic quality. The aim of this article is to illustrate practical examples of noise abatement enforcement practices in the Canton of Basel-Landschaft and to evaluate their effectiveness in reducing noise levels and in improving quality of life. Firstly, the paper shows how road traffic noise can be effectively reduced at the source by low-noise pavements and speed reductions and by measures in the propagation area. Secondly, it evalu-ates their effectiveness with regard to the number of people benefiting from the measure while analyzing their cost-benefit ratio. Finally, the paper provides examples of how quality of life can be increased by noise-abatement measures on buildings. The practical experiences from this study leads to the conclusion that the low noise pavements show the best cost-benefit ratio. Due to the extensive effect on both sides of the road and with a similar vertical effectiveness (unlike noise-barriers or sound proof windows), a larger number of people can directly benefit from a single implementation. Noise-optimization by the arrangement of the buildings is a key factor in the planning of buildings and superstructures.
