Spanish law affects the spatial and urban planning

The new Spanish law, made by Law 37/2003 and Royal Decrees that develop it (RD 1513/2005 and RD 1367/2007) came up with the momentum of the European Noise Directive. It meets the objectives of doing Noise Maps and Action Plans, which should correct the existing conflict situations, prevent the creation of new conflicts and preserve areas with good sound quality. In this paper we want to emphasize the substantial effect of this law on the procedures and instruments of territorial and land planning. The paper analyzes the content of the law and its consequences in the daily practice of urban planning technicians and environmental agencies to review the changes in urban planning. It also presents the barriers found to the implementation of the legislation and it explains some proposed tools to facilitate the new tasks to be developed by technicians not skilled in acoustics and to adapt the deepness of the studies to the size of the potential problems to prevent.