**3.1 Challenges in developing countries in the field of environmental noise policies and guidelines to overcome them**

Environmental noise policies aim at including and/or strengthening the concept of environmental noise, human (and animal) health in policies, legislation and its harmonization, implementation, and enforcement in the development of developing countries and countries in transition. As **Figure 1** and the discussion above show, several factors determine an effective and rational ENM strategy. These include noise monitoring networks, models for the transmission of sound pressure levels, noise mapping, assessments of human exposure and impacts, and the promulgation of emission standards and imission health-based standards. In addition, several costeffective noise exposure control measures are necessary, together with the legislative powers and human and financial resources to implement and enforce them.

*Guidelines for Environmental Noise Management in Developing Countries DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109952*

The following 'challenges' to achieve this aim have been reported in the context of environmental laws and politics which also analogously apply to noise legislation [17, 25, 26]:

	- coordination and integration of ENM policies with other sectoral policies and plans [29, 30].
	- collaboration of different responsible agencies [25].
	- institutional capacity to implement and enforce ENM legislation and policies [31].
	- control of corruption [32].
	- Criteria for guidelines/standards for compliance testing [31, 36].
	- Stakeholder participation (particularly of industry, manufacturers, urban planners, transport planners, transport associations, the informal sector, health communities, enforcement institutions and financial institutions) to formulate and implement ENM policies [25, 27].
	- A detailed cost–benefit analysis of policy measures [2].
	- Monitoring and modeling environmental noise levels [30].
	- Assessment of impact on human health and environment due to noise exposure [30].
	- Reports on sound pressure levels and their impacts in a transparent way [30].

'Guidelines' for overcoming the main challenges of environmental noise policies include [16, 19]:

