Coping with Aviation Noise: Non-Acoustic Factors Influencing Annoyance and Sleep Disturbance from Noise

Abstract

Annoyance and sleep disturbances due to aircraft noise represent a major burden of disease. They are considered as health effects as well as part of the causal pathway from exposure to long-term effects such as cardiovascular and metabolic diseases as well as mental disorders (e.g. depression). Both annoyance and sleep disturbance are not only determined by the noise exposure, but also to a considerable extent by non-acoustic factors. This chapter summarises the most relevant non-acoustic factors and briefly explains their mechanisms on annoyance and sleep as well as the potential to address these factors via intervention methods aiming at the reduction of adverse noise outcomes and an increase in the quality of life of airport residents. Here, the focus is on airport management measures that are considered to help improve the residents’ coping capacity. Findings from the ANIMA case studies with regard to main aspects of quality of life in airport residents around European airports are briefly reported and recommendations for a community-oriented airport management are derived.

Subjective Complaints and Coping Strategies of Individuals with Reported Low-Frequency Noise Perceptions

“…Other non-acoustical factors including personal, contextual, and noise management-related factors also play a highly relevant role in noise reactions and health effects [54][55][56]. Relevant factors include noise sensitivity, demographic factors, situational and personal circumstances, perceived control, and also coping mechanisms [5,[56][57][58][59].…”

Designing for Acoustic Satisfaction in Open Plan Offices

“…There is extensive work to describe and document non-acoustic factors for aviation noise [18]. In this field, researchers have determined that one-third of the variance in annoyance reactions is due to acoustic factors: another third of the variance in annoyance can be explained with non-acoustic factors, and the last third is currently unexplained.…”

DEVELOPING A NOISE & SOUNDSCAPE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR FAIR & EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION OF AIRCRAFT

“…Objectives 2, 5 and 6 -regarding an overview of the role of non-acoustic factors (NAFs) in the context of the human response to sound in general 16,17 and aviation noise in particular 18,19 , the recommendations described the importance of NAFs as significant to consider when evaluating the effectiveness of different options to deliver FED of aircraft. The role of the ISO Soundscape Standards [20][21][22] in assessing NAFs, NAFs in noise and planning policy, and the view of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) 23 regarding NAFs were discussed.…”

“…In addition, when applying the framework, situational factors e.g. 18,29,30 should also be included in the assessment of salient non-acoustic factors. ©Lavia, Clark and Torija.…”