The dependence of the noise impact perception on the noise context. the example of annoyance in comparison of road-traffic noise with air traffic noise

摘要

The article investigates into questions of annoyance differences between various noise sources. The discussion's core is the thesis that annoyance differences are variable and determined by a specific noise context. This thesis is examined on the example of the Swiss noise study '90. This socio-acoustic study contains survey data of 2052 persons living in the vicinity of the Swiss intercontinental airports Geneva and Zurich. Separate values of the air traffic and road-traffic noise impact was assigned to each of the questioned person. The applied unit of the noise impact is the equivalent continues level L{sub}(Aeq) for a 16 hours day (6 a.m. to 10 p.m.). The traffic volume during a whole year was taken into account. The empirical comparison of annoyance between the air traffic and road-traffic impact shows a bonus in favour of the air traffic impact. This result contradicts a priori to the whole range of the empirical findings. A methodological analysis of this contradiction leads to the statement that the hitherto inventory of the existing findings only is oriented to integrate results. This proceeding implicates a loss of information hence the particular effect of the noise context cannot be analysed additionally. Thus, the here represented methodological postulate is that future investigations of annoyance differences should also be more often dedicated to the question on the intervening effect of the noise context.