Human response to simulated airport noise scenarios in home-like environments
Résumé
his research is part of a FP7 project supported by the European Commission called 'Community oriented solutions to minimize aircraft noise annoyance' (COSMA). The present paper focuses on the development and the application of a methodology for the assessment of changes in airport noise exposure in home- like environments, particularly the design of sound scenarios and of experiments. Two airport noise changes are assessed and compared to a reference scenario: a halving of the number of aircraft, and an improvement in aircraft sound quality. For that purpose, sound perception, annoyance and activity dis- turbance as well as performances to cognitive tasks (Stroop and Word list Memory) are considered in the experiments involving 142 participants in 3 laboratories. Despite a similar LAeq, overall annoyance significantly decreases when reducing the number of aircraft, which reinforces the interest in a noise event index (NNE-NA) in addition to energetic noise indices for regulatory purposes. Results to a change in aircraft sound quality are largely inconclusive. Further work should address the human response to future airport noise scenarios based on new aircraft designs, including innovative concepts.