Environmental Noise Main Focus: Aircraft Noise by Jorge Guerra González (Ed.) March 2004 Graue Reihe Nr. 36 Environmental Noise Main Focus: Aircraft Noise by Jorge Guerra González (Ed.) March 2004 Graue Reihe Nr. 36 Publisher: Wilhelmstraße 56, D-53474 Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler Telefon: ++49 - (0)2641 - 973 - 300, Telefax - 320 e-mail: [email protected] Director: Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Carl Friedrich Gethmann (V.i.S.d.P.) ISSN1435-487 X Editing: Dipl.-Päd. Sevim Kiliç Print: Warlich Druck Ahrweiler GmbH, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler Foreword Following the recent general EU-directive 2002/49/EC on Assessment and Management of Environmental Noise, and thus focusing on noise produced by human activity, the Europäische Akademie zur Erforschung von Folgen wissenschaftlich-technischer Entwicklungen Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH has organised on 12th and 13th December 2002 in Bad Neuenahr- Ahrweiler (Germany) an international and interdisciplinary expert meeting on environmental noise. Special interest was paid to aircraft noise, since it works as a paradigm and paradoxical case: air-travel is a growing noise source and people are nevertheless increasingly intolerant with regard to noise; simultaneously air-travel is to be seen as a core element of a progres- sively accepted modern mobility, thus endowed with a high economic potential. At the first session, noise was considered in general and its problematic was lightened from the philosophical (Professor Dr. Klaus Kornwachs, BTU Cottbus, Germany) and medical (Professor Dr. Barbara Griefahn, Universi- ty of Dortmund, Germany) point of view. The second session went into more detail and focused on aircraft noise. Its technical, economical and juridical aspects were respectively clarified by Dr. Dietmar Wurzel (DLR, Germany), Professor Dr. Rainer Friedrich (University of Stuttgart, Ger- many) and Carlos San Martín Castaño (Aena, Spain). Last but not least, the meeting counted additionally with the guest expertise of Professor Dr. Hel- mut Strasser (University of Giessen, Germany). On the basis of the results of this expert meeting, the Europäische Akade- mie has founded a two-year transdisciplinary research project on environ- mental noise, focusing on aircraft noise. Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, March 2004 Jorge Guerra González LIST OF CONTENTS Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Some Philosophical Aspects of Noise Klaus Kornwachs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Medical Aspects: Physiological and Psychological Consequences of Noise with Special Regard to Aircraft Noise Barbara Griefahn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 Technical Developments in the Field of Aircraft Noise Reduction Dietmar Wurzel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 External Costs of Aircraft Noise Rainer Friedrich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 Aircraft Noise – Juridical Aspects Carlos San Martín Castaño . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87 Conventional Measurement, Assessment and Rating of Sound Exposures – A Critical Review from an Ergonomics Point of View Helmut Strasser, Hartmut Irle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101 Addresses of the Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115 5 Introduction „What a peaceful life the one’s who escapes away from the worldly noise“ Fray Luis de León (1527-1591) If noise may be defined as unwanted and/or harmful sound, we may under- stand with the EU directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25thJune that environmental noise is that unwanted or harm- ful outdoor sound created by human activities, including noise emitted by transport (i.e. mainly road, rail and air traffic) and from sites of industrial activity. Noise is potentially dangerous to human beings, for despite its subjective valuation, it objectivelyaffects physical and psychical human health, since the human brain perceives and the body reacts to noise even if the person does not feel annoyed by it. Sleep disturbance – and its consequences –, cardiovascular problems or hearing loss are some of the adverse effects connected with noise. Furthermore, given that the auditory channel is undoubtedly even more important and essential than vision for the social and mental development of people, noise constitutes an obstacle to social life, e.g. by obstructing communication or impairing performance. Over a relatively long period of time already, public awareness and concern with regard to these facts has been steadily growing and the ‘noise dis- course’has become more and more important. As a consequence thereof, national and international policies have changed and a considerable number of legal instruments have been applied in order to reduce noise emission and exposure to noise for the purpose of health protection. These measures have been undertaken in conjunction with others in dealing with the protec- tion of the natural environment and improving the quality of life which also indirectly act on the noise problem. Though great strides have been made, more progress is still needed, for despite those legal measures public unease concerning noise has not decreased. The Europäische Akademie is aware of the relevance of this issue and there- fore willing to contribute to its comprehension and solution. This volume of the “Graue Reihe”, as a result of the expert meeting on environmental noise held in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler on 12th and 13th December 2002, aims at 6 bringing closer to the general public an overview of the main issues con- cerning noise: its philosophical, medical, psychological, technical, eco- nomical and legal aspects. The expert meeting was opened by Professor Dr. Klaus Kornwachs’philo- sophical reflections on the noise problem. He underlines first of all the dif- ference between what is subjectively and objectively considered noise. Anthropology – and thus all factors that may influence culture and cultures – may play a significant role if the goal is to find out when and how differ- ent individuals perceive noise. Nevertheless, even if it is indubitable that noise may objectively damage human health, no clear correlation is to be observed between noise acceptance and health damage. Not even the “objective” factors are entirely unambiguous, since noise measurement, or the consideration of threshold values are valid only relatively or they may even hide unwanted facts – e.g. by not considering the accumulative effects of noise sources on health. Professor Kornwachs concludes his observa- tions with some ethical aspects to be taken into account in the noise norma- tive discourse. Professor Dr. Barbara Griefahn shows in her paper on the medical aspects of noise the enormous problem complexity from the human health point of view. The effects of noise can be aural (noise-induced-hearing loss) and extra-aural (e.g. communication or sleep disturbances, performance decrease or development of chronic (cardiovascular) diseases. The problem is often that these effects are non specific – they might also have other caus- es – and this will make it more difficult to take any effective measures. This is of paramount importance, because the measurement of dose-effect results will only be partially objective if those results depend on different environmental noise stressors. Moreover, it is difficult to measure dose- effect relationships caused by irregular noise sources or to report on the consequences on health of in principle tolerable but permanent noise sources. Finally, it is clear that the subjective annoyance level varies from individual to individual. Taking all this into account, Professor Griefahn makes concrete proposals on noise limits to be observed in various circumstances. Three roughly defined noise level values, – from intolerable for human health until tolera- 7 ble in any case – critical loads, protection guidelines and threshold values are suggested. Going into more concrete terms, Dr. Dietmar Wurzel focuses on technical developments in the field of aircraft noise reduction. The conflict between the goal to increase human mobility and an increasing concern and intoler- ance towards noise exposure is the background against which technical – or, more generally, scientific – developments aiming at aircraft noise abatement are needed. With this target in view, the only achievable goal in the long term would be to design such quiet planes that they do not pollute acoustically the environment, irrespective of their number. In this connec- tion, it should be mentioned that modern jet aircraft more than four times quieter than those of the first generation. What still has to be done on the way to noise abatement in the field of air traffic concerns the engines (turbines, combustion process and jet flow from the exhaust jet), the airframe (or aerodynamic noise which nowadays may be louder than engine noise) and the operational procedures during takeoff and landing. Professor Dr. Rainer Dietrich explains in his paper the external costs of air- craft noise. External costs are those that are not reflected in the price of goods. It seems certain that most of the external costs of noise on human health and economy (e.g. resource costs, opportunity costs, disutility) are not taken into consideration when talking about noise costs – at least, not by those who produce the noise or benefit from the noise sources. But they probably should be. In view of their large extent and wide diversity, exter- nal costs are difficult to calculate; one of the main difficulties being to assess such costs in monetary terms, since some impacts on damage cate- gories do not have a market price. With the help of an impact pathway approach, this paper tries to offer a method to calculate external costs. Once those costs are calculated, the last important question to answer is how to determine the best way to establish liability and effect compensa- tion. Carlos San Martín Castaño deals with the juridical aspects of noise, espe- cially aircraft noise, citing the example of the Barajas-Airport in Madrid. 8