Only recently has noise been considered in the assessment of the sustainability of port infrastructures, after decades of unawareness. INTERREG Maritime projects unveiled problems that have been neglected so far, such as the lack of proper regulation and noise exposure assessments for citizens. While it is true that a port area includes a huge variety of possible noise sources, very few of them have been characterized from an acoustical point of view. INTERREG projects have boosted research in the field, and previous studies have dealt with noise produced by moving ships in ports. The present work starts from a previous measurement campaign used to obtain broadband and 1/3-octave-band noise emissions of moving ships, and it aims to explain their uncertainties. More than a month’s worth of continuous acoustic measurements and video recordings were deeply analyzed in order to obtain an input database that is as precise as possible. A multiple regression analysis was performed in order to understand the influence that parameters such as minimum distance, speed, and draught have on ships’ noise emissions, which were calculated using pass-by measurements, with a special focus on ferries. The minimum distance of each ship’s passage from the microphone was measured using a video recording with an innovative methodology, providing results with 3 m of uncertainty. Knowing which parameter is more influential would help in planning proper measurements for monitoring or for drafting correct guidelines. Draught was determined to be uninfluential in ferries’ noise emissions, while the minimum distance and speed relations were estimated and accounted for in the calculation of a refined sound power level. From a spectrum point of view, the frequencies from 500 Hz to 2.5 kHz were determined to be those that contributed the most to the noise produced by the transit of a ship, and they vary with speed. With the studied corrections, different ferry models resulted in similar noise emissions. The standard deviation of noise emitted was reduced by 0.5 dB (A), and the average was also improved by positioning the ships’ flow at the correct average minimum distance. Furthermore, the right placement of a source is also important in the acoustic mapping phase for a correct evaluation of the propagation of noise at a distance. The use of more precise input data is important for improving the output of acoustic propagation models during the assessment of port noise in the surrounding areas.

In almost all urban contexts and in many extra-urban conurbations, where road traffic is the main noise pollution source, the use of barriers is not allowed. In these cases, low-noise road surfaces are the most used mitigation action together with traffic flow reduction. Selecting the optimal surface is only the first problem that the public administration has to face. In the second place, it has to consider the issue of assessing the efficacy of the mitigation action. The purpose of the LEOPOLDO project was to improve the knowledge in the design and the characterization of low-noise road surfaces, producing guidelines helpful to the public administrations. Several experimental road surfaces were tested. Moreover, several measurement methods were implemented aiming to select those that are suitable for a correct assessment of the pavement performances laid as mitigation planning. In this paper, the experience gained in the LEOPOLDO project will be described, focusing on both the measurement methods adopted to assess the performance of a low-noise road surface and the criteria by which the experimental results have to be evaluated, presenting a comparison of the obtained results and their monitoring along time.