Noise is an important environmental factor affecting the degradation of the urban environment and the quality of life especially in countries where climatic conditions favours outdoor activities & the night life. In Greece, quality of life has been established as a legal conception protected by the Constitution (Article 24: "The Protection of the natural and cultural environment is an obligation of the state and examined by the judge"). Quality of life is characterized by the sound environment, which contributes to the spaces' aesthetic determination. The existing Greek legislation deals with environmental noise in a basis of a rather quantitive approach i.e. max. permissible levels per source, not taking clearly into account a wider conception of the acoustic environment. The realization of the need for legal cover of environmental acoustic landscape protection has led to the creation of an autonomous branch of law, that of environmental law, introducing recent regulations regarding anti-noise planning, introduced the implementation of the 2002/49/EK Directive (1) and the COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION OF 6 AUGUST 2003 (2003/613/EC)(2) as well a new framework introducing criteria & max permissible limits for all types of environmental noise due to transportation networks, whose primary purpose is the all-encompassing legal approach of the environmental problem. The basic characteristics are its in-tense pragmatic and empirical character, its great dependence on E.U. legislation and on jurisprudence and its close relation to economic growth and technology. Environmental noise protection is part of the concept of public interest and, as far as its systematic classification is concerned, it belongs to the field of the manifestation of government intervention, and is constitutionally established with article 24 par.1 of the Constitution, stating: "Environmental protection is a State obligation. The State is obligated to take special preventative or rehabilitation measures for its preservation."
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