Every year, around 7 million people die prematurely due to diseases related to air pollution all over the world – over 350 thousand of them in the EU area. Imagine if the entire population of the Dutch city of Utrecht or the Bulgarian city of Plodviv died in just one year due to air pollution and then you have a bigger picture of the problem for European cities and citizens.

Along with air quality, noise pollution is another major preoccupation of European cities. Invisible, yet dangerous, it can cause serious health issues, not to mention it also affects wildlife, being harmful to both humans and animals alike. Noise-inducing hearing loss is one such illness brought about by noise pollution – that is often associated with air pollution through, for instance, heavy traffic and traffic jams.

Both air and noise pollution affect the lives of citizens and several cities are looking for ways to mitigate the problem and even to plan ahead in order to avoid issues in the near future.