Community Reaction to Impulsive Noise. A Final 10-Year Research Summary. Revised.
Abstract
A major concern of Army planners is the trend toward siting off-installation housing and other noise-sensitive land uses in areas exposed to high noise levels produced by Army training or operational activities. To do effective noise-related assessments and planning the Army must be able to assess the community reaction to impulsive noise. Impulsive noise is produced by Army noise sources like armor, artillery, and demolition. This collection of papers summarizes 10 years of work by the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) in the area of community response to impulsive noise. It is based on laboratory tests using a blast noise simulator, a study of Army-wide noise complaints, and attitudinal surveys conducted at Fort Bragg, NC, and Fort Lewis, WA. The attitudinal surveys provide most of the data. The major conclusions show that an energy type of model such as the C-weighted day/night average sound level (CDNL) is the best available descriptor for community response. Growth in annoyance to all noises increases monotonically with both sound amplitude and frequency of occurrence. This descriptor should incorporate a nighttime adjustment on the order of 10 decibels (dB). Keywords: Noise pollution; Communities; Fort Bragg, NC; and Fort Lewis, WA.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1985
- Accession Number
- ADA159455
Entities
People
- P. D. Schomer
- R. D. Neathammer
Organizations
- Construction Engineering Research Laboratory