The role of non-acoustic factors in subjective noise abatement management (vor Ort)
* Presenting author
Abstract:
Findings from studies on community responses to noise indicate an excess in noise annoyance judgments after a change in the noise exposure, e.g., due to a flight path change. This 'change-effect' means a shift in the exposure-response relationship following the direction of the change in exposure. There are several explanations for this change-effect in annoyance. One is that non-acoustic factors (NAF) play an important role in such change situations. As a rule of thumb, about one third of noise annoyance is explained by average sound level metrics. Another third is explained by NAF. The last third – so far unexplained – may comprise further not assessed acoustic or non-acoustic factors and measurement error. This contribution reflects on the role of non-acoustic factors in situations of change due to the implementation of noise abatement measures. Understanding the impact of non-acoustic factors of annoyance requires an understanding of the concept of noise annoyance. In our contribution, we introduce noise annoyance as a psychological stress response to noise requiring coping with or recover from the noise situation. We explain the role of non-acoustic factors within this stress process and outline how the consideration of non-acoustic factors could improve the noise abatement management.
