Aircraft noise annoyance at outdoor living spaces

摘要

The Swedish guideline value for aircraft noise of 70 dB L_(Amax) (time-weighting Slow) is intended to protect residential outdoor living spaces, such as balconies, patios and terraces. To provide empirical foundation for a revision of this policy, a questionnaire study was conducted among residents living close to seven Swedish airports. The questionnaire included questions on aircraft noise annoyance as experienced at the dwelling's outdoor living space. About 3100 persons answered the questionnaire (response rate 65 %). Annoyance responses were linked to aircraft noise exposure, L_(Amax) and L_(den), calculated using the Integrated Noise Model (INM 7.0). A consistent relationship was found between, on the one hand, the number of aircraft events ≥ 70 dB L_(Amax), and, on the other hand, the proportion of residents annoyed by aircraft noise at their outdoor living space. The proportion of annoyed residents increased rapidly from exposures greater than 3-5 events per day and evening. The same trend was found for activity disturbances at outdoor living spaces, in particular for disturbances related to speech communication, such as conversation or radio listening. In the present study, a large majority of residents exposed to 3-5 aircraft events ≥ 70 dB L_(Amax) were exposed to less than 50 dB L_(den) (outdoor at the facade), which suggest that L_(den)-guideline-values exceeding 50 dB may not protect against noise annoyance at outdoor living spaces.