Quality of Life and Annoyance
The Quality of Life Study examined the connection between the objectively measurable noise level and the statements of people who hear the noise about their subjective experience.
It deals with this context from three angles:
- Over time: How does the annoyance develop when the noise changes, e.g. after development of an airport?
- By comparison between noise sources: How does aircraft noise act as compared to road or rail noise?
- By site comparison: Do people in the Rhine-Main area evaluate traffic noise differently from people in Cologne, Stuttgart or Berlin?
To answer these questions, the scientists questioned people in the area of the airports and then put their answers in relationships with the noise level in the respective place of residence. They used this to develop annoyance curves, and then used the position and pitch of these curves to derive statements on how people react to noise. For authorities, annoyance curves are an important basis to evaluate noise protection measures.
The surveys covered:
- about 19,000 people in the Rhine-Main area
- about 10,000 people in the area of the airports Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart and Berlin-Brandenburg
For more information on the Quality of Life Study, see the “NORAH Knowledge” booklets no. 7 (Methods) and no. 13 (Results) or click here.