Human response to simulated airport noise scenarios in home-like environments

This 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 homelike 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 disturbance 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 L-Aeq, 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. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.