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Air transport noise
Applied Acoustics 84 (2014) 1–2
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Applied Acoustics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apacoust
Editorial
Air transport noise Noise pollution around air transport infrastructures is a major problem with regards to the environment in modern societies and causes a substantial impact on the surrounding communities. Besides the auditory effects, which are not very common when we refer to environmental acoustics, there is vast scientific evidence describing the potential effects of aircraft noise on health. Therefore, aviation noise is addressed as an environmental stressor, a public health concern that has been the focus of research for decades, and continues to be a hot topic nowadays. A combination of the continuous development of airports and the undeniable economic and social growth that an airport brings to neighbouring communities have to be compared to the detrimental issues deriving from the environmental impact. As a consequence, noise management continues to be a challenge for airport authorities and aviation stakeholders and has been addressed in this Special Issue that focuses on environmental acoustics and the residents’ perspective, excluding the aeronautics and acoustic engineering points of view. The first two papers in this Special Issue explore two of the major effects of aviation noise: annoyance and sleep disturbance. Annoyance is a feeling of displeasure or dissatisfaction that significantly reduces the quality of life of the people affected. It is probably the most documented and widely studied noise effect, but especially, concerning aviation noise, it is still a hot topic for researchers. Dr. Dickson and Dr. Bolin have investigated a new method for the study of instantaneous annoyance, and present the results and conclusions obtained in the evaluation of original and artificially modified aircraft sounds. Regarding sleep disturbance, the paper by Dr. Janssen and colleagues presents the results of their research. It deals with the association between sleep quality and the number of aircraft noise events, complementing the prediction potential of other exposure indicators, such as Lnight. Noise can interfere with people’s everyday activities at work, at school, at home and during leisure time. However, besides these direct consequences, aviation noise negatively affects the economic component of our modern societies: (a) it produces an operational loss of airports by constraining the number of operations or time periods, imposing procedural restrictions, or even limiting the growth of the infrastructure; (b) it produces a depreciation of properties in airport surroundings; (c) some mitigation actions, such as noise insulation programmes, produce direct costs; (d) there are costs deriving from the reduced performance of people directly exposed to noise at work or school, and for those suffering from inadequate rest; (e) healthcare costs will increase, as a consequence of the direct health effects of noise. The third paper in this Special Issue is closely linked to this economic component. After analysing the social costs of noise at different airports in Taiwan, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2014.05.001 0003-682X/Ó 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
the research, by professor Lu, proposes a systematic aircraft noise charge scheme. The next two papers are a consequence of the efforts that the European Union has undertaken in noise management during the last decade. In 2002 the European Parliament adopted the Environmental Noise Directive 2002/49/EC (usually referred to as END). END established the obligation to prepare Strategic Noise Maps and draw up Action Plans for the major transport infrastructures in the European Union, which, of course, included airports. In the first of these two papers, Dr. Licitra and his colleagues investigated the implementation of action plans for Pisa’s civil and military airports aiming to reduce the aviation noise impact. In the second paper, Prof. Vogiatzis also focuses on the results that END and the application of action plans have produced at Athens International Airport. The paper by Dr. Xie and colleagues, presents the situation associated with aircraft noise in China, describing the evolution of aircraft noise and related effects, and analysing the strategies that can be undertaken for their mitigation. The seventh paper in this Special Issue is closely related to the calculation methods for the preparation of noise maps and noise contours. These are the main tools for managing noise as they set the basis for impact assessment, land planning or the definition of the areas where noise insulation programmes have to be implemented. Dr. Schaffer and colleagues have focused their research on the analysis of the uncertainty in these calculation methods, analysing the contributions of single flights, and extending the results to the long-term evaluations. To some extent, the eighth paper is also focused on noise calculations. In this paper, Prof. Kang and Dr. Hao studied the influence of urban morphology on the spatial noise level attenuation of aircraft flyover acoustic emissions. Monitoring is also quite an extensive tool for noise management. The papers by Marquez Molina et al., and by Tarabini et al. describe methods for the detection and classification of sound events on the basis of sound features, targeting to improve the quality of noise assessment measurements. In the next paper, Dr. Arntzen and Dr. Simons present a different approach for assessing aircraft noise, which is not based on traditional metrics, but on sound synthesis. This approach aims to experience differences due to noise abatement procedures or new aircraft designs or modifications. On a different subject, the paper by Asensio and colleagues presents an analysis of the subjective perception of noise and the mitigation measures adopted as a result of sound insulation programmes implemented in Spanish airports. Also regarding the sound insulation of dwellings affected by aircraft noise, the paper by Romeu et al. describes an experimental work on the active con-
2
Editorial / Applied Acoustics 84 (2014) 1–2
trol of sound transmission for mitigating the loss of insulation in the façades caused by the aperture of windows. The last paper in this Special Issue is a contribution from Dr. Derrick Taff and colleagues. The investigation analyses noise from the receivers’ point of view, but in this case the receivers are not
residents living in the surroundings of an airport, but the visitors to a National Park in the United States. The paper analyses the role that communication strategies can play in the acceptability of noise, in such an idyllic, desirable and silent place.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Applied Acoustics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apacoust
Editorial
Air transport noise Noise pollution around air transport infrastructures is a major problem with regards to the environment in modern societies and causes a substantial impact on the surrounding communities. Besides the auditory effects, which are not very common when we refer to environmental acoustics, there is vast scientific evidence describing the potential effects of aircraft noise on health. Therefore, aviation noise is addressed as an environmental stressor, a public health concern that has been the focus of research for decades, and continues to be a hot topic nowadays. A combination of the continuous development of airports and the undeniable economic and social growth that an airport brings to neighbouring communities have to be compared to the detrimental issues deriving from the environmental impact. As a consequence, noise management continues to be a challenge for airport authorities and aviation stakeholders and has been addressed in this Special Issue that focuses on environmental acoustics and the residents’ perspective, excluding the aeronautics and acoustic engineering points of view. The first two papers in this Special Issue explore two of the major effects of aviation noise: annoyance and sleep disturbance. Annoyance is a feeling of displeasure or dissatisfaction that significantly reduces the quality of life of the people affected. It is probably the most documented and widely studied noise effect, but especially, concerning aviation noise, it is still a hot topic for researchers. Dr. Dickson and Dr. Bolin have investigated a new method for the study of instantaneous annoyance, and present the results and conclusions obtained in the evaluation of original and artificially modified aircraft sounds. Regarding sleep disturbance, the paper by Dr. Janssen and colleagues presents the results of their research. It deals with the association between sleep quality and the number of aircraft noise events, complementing the prediction potential of other exposure indicators, such as Lnight. Noise can interfere with people’s everyday activities at work, at school, at home and during leisure time. However, besides these direct consequences, aviation noise negatively affects the economic component of our modern societies: (a) it produces an operational loss of airports by constraining the number of operations or time periods, imposing procedural restrictions, or even limiting the growth of the infrastructure; (b) it produces a depreciation of properties in airport surroundings; (c) some mitigation actions, such as noise insulation programmes, produce direct costs; (d) there are costs deriving from the reduced performance of people directly exposed to noise at work or school, and for those suffering from inadequate rest; (e) healthcare costs will increase, as a consequence of the direct health effects of noise. The third paper in this Special Issue is closely linked to this economic component. After analysing the social costs of noise at different airports in Taiwan, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2014.05.001 0003-682X/Ó 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
the research, by professor Lu, proposes a systematic aircraft noise charge scheme. The next two papers are a consequence of the efforts that the European Union has undertaken in noise management during the last decade. In 2002 the European Parliament adopted the Environmental Noise Directive 2002/49/EC (usually referred to as END). END established the obligation to prepare Strategic Noise Maps and draw up Action Plans for the major transport infrastructures in the European Union, which, of course, included airports. In the first of these two papers, Dr. Licitra and his colleagues investigated the implementation of action plans for Pisa’s civil and military airports aiming to reduce the aviation noise impact. In the second paper, Prof. Vogiatzis also focuses on the results that END and the application of action plans have produced at Athens International Airport. The paper by Dr. Xie and colleagues, presents the situation associated with aircraft noise in China, describing the evolution of aircraft noise and related effects, and analysing the strategies that can be undertaken for their mitigation. The seventh paper in this Special Issue is closely related to the calculation methods for the preparation of noise maps and noise contours. These are the main tools for managing noise as they set the basis for impact assessment, land planning or the definition of the areas where noise insulation programmes have to be implemented. Dr. Schaffer and colleagues have focused their research on the analysis of the uncertainty in these calculation methods, analysing the contributions of single flights, and extending the results to the long-term evaluations. To some extent, the eighth paper is also focused on noise calculations. In this paper, Prof. Kang and Dr. Hao studied the influence of urban morphology on the spatial noise level attenuation of aircraft flyover acoustic emissions. Monitoring is also quite an extensive tool for noise management. The papers by Marquez Molina et al., and by Tarabini et al. describe methods for the detection and classification of sound events on the basis of sound features, targeting to improve the quality of noise assessment measurements. In the next paper, Dr. Arntzen and Dr. Simons present a different approach for assessing aircraft noise, which is not based on traditional metrics, but on sound synthesis. This approach aims to experience differences due to noise abatement procedures or new aircraft designs or modifications. On a different subject, the paper by Asensio and colleagues presents an analysis of the subjective perception of noise and the mitigation measures adopted as a result of sound insulation programmes implemented in Spanish airports. Also regarding the sound insulation of dwellings affected by aircraft noise, the paper by Romeu et al. describes an experimental work on the active con-
2
Editorial / Applied Acoustics 84 (2014) 1–2
trol of sound transmission for mitigating the loss of insulation in the façades caused by the aperture of windows. The last paper in this Special Issue is a contribution from Dr. Derrick Taff and colleagues. The investigation analyses noise from the receivers’ point of view, but in this case the receivers are not
residents living in the surroundings of an airport, but the visitors to a National Park in the United States. The paper analyses the role that communication strategies can play in the acceptability of noise, in such an idyllic, desirable and silent place.