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A search of the literature published from 1972 to 1980 was made to identify studies of the effect of how the number of aircraft operations and night weighting of sound levels affect human response. Significant articles are reviewed. Results are reported which show that a multiplier, K, of the logarithm of number of operations should be incorporated in cumulative noise measures. While some research suggests that K different from 10 could be used, analyses of the publications shows that setting K equal to 10 is equally valid within the confidence levels of the data. No new data are available to support a change from the current night weighting of 10 decibels used in day-night average sound level (DNL). However, little scientific data to support this weighting exist. Analyses are provided to examine the effect of setting K from 4 to 20 and of changes in night weighting on the area of airport noise contours. These analyses are reported as the ratio of contour area, at an equal decibel level, to the area when K equals 10 and night weighting is 10 decibels, for different classes of aircraft. The conclusion of this study is that DNL is a good, or better, than other proposals to relate the noise from aircraft operations to community response, and should not be changed from its current definition. (Author)

The Department of Transportation (DOT)/Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has developed a valuable noise-simulation computer-based tool for describing and defining the impact of aircraft noise around an airport. This tool, The Integrated Noise Model (INM), became available to the public in 1977, and is useful in assessing actual or predicted airport noise impacts. The INM takes into account all pertinent impact parameters including types and numbers of aircraft operating at the airport, flight tracks, operating procedures, and time of day of aircraft operations. This paper describes the capabilities and characteristics of the INM.

This research is concerned with the minimization of annoyance due to aircraft noise to airport communities. The approach developed is an interactive one which permits interaction with the Decision Maker. The immediate vicinity of an airport is divided into several areas based on population and proximity to the runways. The user can then minimize annoyance over any set of areas subject to the appropriate constraints. After any optimization, the results may be reviewed. The results provided include noise and annoyance in each area as well as the gradient of the objective and slackness associated with each constraint. This would assist the user in making a decision and aid in sensitivity analyses. At each stage of optimization, the problem solved has a nonlinear objective function and linear constraints. This problem is solved by solving successive surrogate linear problems. The method uses a first-order Taylor series expansion about the solution point to set up the surrogate linear problem. The first solution point is obtained by solving an approximate linear problem. The approach suggested is then applied to an example airport. Different scenarios are considered to illustrate the use of the model. Both the formulation of the objective as well as the constraints are illustrated. Master of Science

The Queen Alia International Airport is being designed to replace the existing Amman, Jordan, airport. This paper describes pertinent background information, conditions encountered, design approaches and construction considerations. The "special environment" factors include: location in a Zone III earthquake region; hot and semi-arid climate; adverse water supply conditions; the type and quality of locally available construction materials; and, local customs and procedures. Proper solutions are being achieved through the performance of investigations; the experience of the local prime contractor; and, cooperation by the several governmental and local organizations.

A series of tests designed to determine the effect on the auditory threshold of the worst “neighborhood” exposure to aircraft noise that can reasonably be expected has been conducted. Tape‐recorded overpasses, both landings and takeoffs, were reproduced at 111 dBA (peak level) in a reverberant room. Six‐hour exposures to (1) one landing every 3 min, (2) one landing every 90 sec, (3) one takeoff every 3 min, and (4) one takeoff every 90 sec were given to one of two groups of five normal listeners. TTS2 (the temporary threshold shift 2 min after an overpass) at 0.5, 1, 2, 2.8, 4, and 8 kHz was determined at hourly intervals. The mean TTS2 did not reach 5 dB at any frequency in any condition; the highest value was 3.9 dB at 4 kHz after condition 2 (90‐sec‐interval landings). Implications of these results to the auditory hazard of airport noise are discussed; clearly such hazard is ordinarily minuscule. [Research supported by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Public Health Service.]

Acute intense noise is a physiological stressor in man and other animals, but the effect of chronic exposure on human health is not clearly understood. To suggest whether chronic exposure to environmental noise produces health effects in humans, an investigation of the physical growth of children from a noise exposed community was conducted. This report describes the investigation into the prenatal growth of children born to mothers exposed to airport noise.

Topics include: sonic boom production by supersonic airplanes; variations in sonic boom strength; sonic boom effects; legal aspects of sonic boom; including recovery for sonic boom damage.

Growing awareness of the negative externalities of aviation has led to increasing objections to airport development, notably to expansion. This can be challenging for airport operators - particularly in regions where air traffic is growing rapidly, or where expansion is sought. In response, the air transport industry has gone to great lengths to reduce the impact of noise. However, these efforts are not always translated into reductions in noise annoyance. An EU Horizon 2020 funded research project, Aviation Noise Impact Management through Novel Approaches (ANIMA), looked to address this gap by developing new methodologies, approaches and tools to manage and mitigate the impact of aviation noise. Specifically, this paper reviews current practice in relation to airport communication and engagement activities in relation to noise. The paper reviews guidance provided by the aviation industry on public participation, finding that although the requirement for communication is made clear, guidance on exactly how such communication should take place is often lacking, as is the need for two-way dialogues and processes of evaluation. These findings are supported by a review of the literature surrounding the public participation to identify what the key components of such engagement activities should look like. The paper concludes with a call for an increased focus on community engagement by the aviation industry, and stresses the necessity not for communication to be a ‘bolt-on’ to existing ICAO Balanced Approach elements, but to be an important and necessary component of noise management in its own right.

Anthropogenic noise is of increasing concern to biologists and medical scientists. Its detrimental effects on human health have been well studied, with the high noise levels from air traffic being of particular concern. However, less is known about the effects of airport noise pollution on signal masking in wild animals. Here, we report a relationship between aircraft noise and two major features of the singing behavior of birds. We found that five of ten songbird species began singing significantly earlier in the morning in the vicinity of a major European airport than their conspecifics at a quieter control site. As birds at both sites started singing before the onset of air traffic in the morning, this suggests that the birds in the vicinity of the airport advanced their activity to gain more time for unimpaired singing before the massive plane noise set in. In addition, we found that during the day, chaffinches avoided singing during airplane takeoffs, but only when the noise exceeded a certain threshold, further suggesting that the massive noise caused by the airport can impair acoustic communication in birds. Overall, our study indicates that birds may be adjusting their mating signals and time budgets in response to aircraft noise.

This paper reports the results of a research designed to assess the impact of Barcelona’s airport extension in terms of noise increase. A contingent valuation (CV) approach was carried out in order to extract the stated preference for noise reduction for a representative sample of residential areas; using this technique the respondents revealed their willingness to pay (WTP) for a proposed noise reduction. One of the main problems of CV is the protest answers, it is to say, the people that do not reveal their WTP, although they do value positively the good offered. For this reason two approaches were tested: the first is the conventional one where people state directly their WTP for a specific noise reduction; the second one the interviewed people state their hypothesis of real estate revalorization in case that such noise reduction would occur. The results reveals that direct WTP has a protest rate of 37.19%, meanwhile the second indirect WTP has only a protest rate of 7.8%. Furthermore, the data analysis based on logistic models suggest two conclusions: 1) the higher is the knowledge of the problem related to noise source, the higher is the WTP, controlling the rest of variables, and 2) also higher is the level of protest rate. It is to say, people aware of the airport problems are more skeptical about the valuation process (e.g.: the solution proposed to reduce the noise, the payment vehicle, or the noise reduction offered), this skepticism drive to boycott the experiment and consequently it masks the true WTP. Both effects produce a reduction on the aggregated mean WTP. For this reason the opinion and valuation of an environmental good (as silence) is not only influenced by the individual perception, but also is influenced by the knowledge about it, and the social perception; for this latter reason the predictive capacity of models is improved when the socio‐spatial correlation interactions are solved. Finally the results also suggest that the impact of airport noise is also influenced by the existence of other environmental noise source and the configuration of urban fabrics.

Growing awareness of the negative externalities of aviation has led to increasing objections to airport development, notably to expansion. This can be challenging for airport operators - particularly in regions where air traffic is growing rapidly, or where expansion is sought. In response, the air transport industry has gone to great lengths to reduce the impact of noise. However, these efforts are not always translated into reductions in noise annoyance. An EU Horizon 2020 funded research project, Aviation Noise Impact Management through Novel Approaches (ANIMA), looked to address this gap by developing new methodologies, approaches and tools to manage and mitigate the impact of aviation noise. Specifically, this paper reviews current practice in relation to airport communication and engagement activities in relation to noise. The paper reviews guidance provided by the aviation industry on public participation, finding that although the requirement for communication is made clear, guidance on exactly how such communication should take place is often lacking, as is the need for two-way dialogues and processes of evaluation. These findings are supported by a review of the literature surrounding the public participation to identify what the key components of such engagement activities should look like. The paper concludes with a call for an increased focus on community engagement by the aviation industry, and stresses the necessity not for communication to be a ‘bolt-on’ to existing ICAO Balanced Approach elements, but to be an important and necessary component of noise management in its own right.

The determination of the exterior noise exposure around a complex building form is accomplished by acoustical modeling, simulating aircraft in taxiing, docking, and takoff, and helicopters in approach, landing, and takeoff. The deviations from free‐field inverse‐square pressure spectra are essential to proper design for interior residual‐noise criteria.