Noise and Legal Dispute: Applications and Limits of the Italian Stardard UNI/TS 11844

Abstract

In forensic acoustics, a possible area of analysis is represented by unwanted sound that 1
 is perceived as a source of intrusion or disturbance within a certain auditory context. This context 2
 is defined as the "auditory scene" and refers to the set of sounds present in a specific environment. 3
 The presence of unwanted sounds in the auditory scene can cause a wide range of negative effects, 4
 including disturbance, discomfort, moral or immoral harm, and other types of negative impact on the 5
 health and well-being of individuals exposed to noise. In 2022, the technical specification UNI/TS 6
 11844:2022 dedicated to the measurement and analysis of intrusive noise was published. The standard 7
 introduces the concept of intrusive noise and defines its calculation methods based on environmental 8
 measurements. The purposes of this technical specification is to provide an objective support to 9
 methods already in used in acoustic disputes, where the assessment of the annoyance of a noise is 10
 often a subjective evaluation of the technician. This work delves into the application to some real 11
 cases, identifying the potentiality and the limits of the standardized method.