Annoyance Judgment and Measurements of Environmental Noise: A Focus on Italian Secondary Schools

Abstract

The effects of noise on students’ health, well-being, and learning are of growing concern among both the general public and policy-makers in Europe. Several studies have highlighted the consequences of noise on children’s learning and performance at school. This study investigates the relationship between noise judgment in school goers aged 11–18 and noise measurements aimed at evaluating their exposure at school. For this purpose, a questionnaire was administered to 521 individuals in 28 classrooms in eight schools of four cities in Italy, with different environmental characteristics. Using a Likert-type scale, a selected set of responses related to noise generated an Annoyance Index (AI) score for each student and a classroom median score (MAI). From the noise data acquired, a global noise score (GNS) was assigned to each classroom. A higher AI was found in industrialized areas and among younger students. No significant differences in noise judgment were found by gender. A significant inverse correlation was described between MAI and GNS, thus the better the acoustic quality of the classrooms, the less the perceived noise and annoyance. The results show that noise perception and consequent disturbance are highly correlated with classroom acoustics, and confirm that annoyance represents the most widespread subjective response to noise.

Performance Evaluation of Distance Measurement Methods for Construction Noise Prediction Using Case-Based Reasoning

“…A number of environment-related problems are a concern around the world. Specifically, construction noise is globally regarded as a major nuisance because of its harmful effects on human health and the environment [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]14,15]. Such noises may lead to serious risk and excessive expenditure caused by project delays for construction firms [8,10,22].…”

“…Environmental issues are a growing concern, and environmental pollution is globally recognized as a serious problem in modern society that adversely affects people and their surroundings [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Because of environmental pollution and nuisances, a number of related complaints and disputes have arisen [3,[9][10][11][12][13].…”

“…In particular, noise from construction projects is considered a principal pollutant that causes harmful effects to neighboring residents and the surrounding environment [7,9,14,15]. Chronic exposure to noise can lead to significant health problems, such as depression [5,8,16,17], hearing impairment [5,18,19], cardiovascular disease [3,20], impaired cognitive performance [1,4], interference of communication [2], general understanding [4], hypertension [2,8,10,20], mental disturbances [3,4,8,16,18], short-term memory impairments [1,2,4], and sleep disorders [2,3,20]. Such damages are not only restricted to residents, but may also cause economic losses to construction companies through cost overruns and schedule delays [8,10,14,21].…”

Numerical Study on Wind‐Induced Noise of High‐Rise Building Curtain Wall with Outside Shading Devices

“…As reported in a number of recent studies, noise pollution continues to be a major health issue in urban area, especially areas close to road traffic [8,9], railway traffic [10,11], and airport [12,13]. The detrimental effects produced by noise to health are well-known, such as annoyance [14], sleep disorders with awakenings, learning impairment [15], and hypertension ischemic heart disease [16]. Furthermore, wind-induce noise is comparable to wind turbine noise and is recognized as a very highly annoying noise source [17].…”

Pass-by Characterization of Noise Emitted by Different Categories of Seagoing Ships in Ports

“…It has now been demonstrated by many studies that prolonged exposure to noise can induce cardiovascular disease [7,8], alterations in blood pressure [9,10], respiratory diseases [11], hypertension [12], learning impairment [13,14], annoyance [15,16], and sleep disturbance [17][18][19]. In very recent years, awareness on the subject has also reflected on house pricing [20].…”