The rapid growth of economic activity has led to the emergence of major new environmental problems for society, such as oil spills and chemical, the negative impact on the landscape, the deterioration of strategic ecosystems and increased levels of noise, among others, whose solutions require new challenges by professionals and researchers in environmental economics. In particular, the accelerated noise emissions for the most dynamic industrial, commercial and leisure activities have generated a gradual deterioration of the acoustic quality of the cities with the consequent loss of welfare for the population. Within these emission sources of noise, traffic stands out as one of the sources that most contributes to the loss of quality in cities and in particular in urban areas. In this sense, the main negative impacts of increased noise levels in urban areas are those associated with damage to health and loss of value of houses. © 2014 Revista de estudios regionales. Universidades Públicas de Andalucía.