Coping with Aviation Noise: Non-Acoustic Factors Influencing Annoyance and Sleep Disturbance from Noise

Annoyance and sleep disturbances due to aircraft noise represent a major burden of disease. They are considered as health effects as well as part of the causal pathway from exposure to long-term effects such as cardiovascular and metabolic diseases as well as mental disorders (e.g. depression). Both annoyance and sleep disturbance are not only determined by the noise exposure, but also to a considerable extent by non-acoustic factors. This chapter summarises the most relevant non-acoustic factors and briefly explains their mechanisms on annoyance and sleep as well as the potential to address these factors via intervention methods aiming at the reduction of adverse noise outcomes and an increase in the quality of life of airport residents. Here, the focus is on airport management measures that are considered to help improve the residents’ coping capacity. Findings from the ANIMA case studies with regard to main aspects of quality of life in airport residents around European airports are briefly reported and recommendations for a community-oriented airport management are derived

Antarctic ice sheet sensitivity to atmospheric CO2 variations in the early to mid-Miocene

Geological records from the Antarctic margin offer direct evidence of environmental variability at high southern latitudes and provide insight regarding ice sheet sensitivity to past climate change. The early to mid-Miocene (23-14 Mya) is a compelling interval to study as global temperatures and atmospheric CO2 concentrations were similar to those projected for coming centuries. Importantly, this time interval includes the Miocene Climatic Optimum, a period of global warmth during which average surface temperatures were 3-4 °C higher than today. Miocene sediments in the ANDRILL-2A drill core from the Western Ross Sea, Antarctica, indicate that the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) was highly variable through this key time interval. A multiproxy dataset derived from the core identifies four distinct environmental motifs based on changes in sedimentary facies, fossil assemblages, geochemistry, and paleotemperature. Four major disconformities in the drill core coincide with regional seismic discontinuities and reflect transient expansion of grounded ice across the Ross Sea. They correlate with major positive shifts in benthic oxygen isotope records and generally coincide with intervals when atmospheric CO2 concentrations were at or below preindustrial levels (∼280 ppm). Five intervals reflect ice sheet minima and air temperatures warm enough for substantial ice mass loss during episodes of high (∼500 ppm) atmospheric CO2. These new drill core data and associated ice sheet modeling experiments indicate that polar climate and the AIS were highly sensitive to relatively small changes in atmospheric CO2 during the early to mid-Miocene

Geschickt kombiniert: Simultane Erfassung von 3D-Geometrie und Oberflächenrauheit

Formgenauigkeit und Oberflächenrauheit der Funktionsflächen von Komponenten ließen sich bisher im Fertigungsprozess nur mit großem Aufwand gemeinsam überprüfen. Dies gelingt nun mit einem neu entwickelten Sensor selbst an Objekten mit technisch rauen Oberflächen. Der kompakte Sensor kann direkt in die Produktionsmaschine integriert werden

Reducing noise impact and improving quality of life by addressing annoyance

Aircraft noise is the most significant impact on communities residing near airports. But in addition to acoustical factors, non-acoustical factors also contribute to noise annoyance. In the ANIMA project, relevant indicators influencing the quality of life of residents living near an airport are identified. Literature studies, but also focus group meetings, workshops, and online surveys for communities near altogether nine different European airports are performed to understand the role of the airport and the implications on the well-being of citizens. Furthermore, it is intended to study what current communication strategies of the airports are and how they influence the impact of aircraft noise on residents’ annoyance response and well-being. A detailed literature study as well as a re-analysis of data has been carried out to develop awakenings indicators for nocturnal fly-overs, as noise-induced sleep disturbance has been linked to adverse health effects and is also associated with annoyance. Another study will be conducted to understand human visual perception of aircraft and their noise levels using a noise simulator with Virtual Reality glasses, where different aircraft types and their noise impact will be compared in a laboratory study and later in an “in situ” experiment. Finally, people’s perception of environmental sound near the airport and the relation with land use planning will be evaluated by developing a mobile application to be used around Heathrow and Ljubljana Airport. Together with a carefully crafted social media study, data on property-value and movement of people throughout the day, we hope to establish more evidence on the relationship between land-use planning, noise perception and quality of life. The outcomes of all studies will be tested later in intervention studies and, or integrated into a Best-Practice portal that will be available for airports, governments, communities, and other stakeholders