An Assessment of Psychological Noise Reduction by Landscape Plants

The emphasis in the term ‘Green Transportation’ is on the word ‘green’. Green transportation focuses on the construction of a slow transport system with a visually pleasing, easy and secure trip environment composed of urban parks, green roadside spaces and some other space that is full of landscape plants. This trip environment encourages residents to make trip choices that reduce fuel consumption and pollution and is one of the most important ways of popularizing green transportation. To study the psychological benefits provided by urban parks and other landscape environments, we combined a subjective approach (a questionnaire) with an objective quantitative approach (emotional tests using an electroencephalogram; EEG). Using a questionnaire survey, we found that 90% of the subjects believed that landscape plants contribute to noise reduction and that 55% overrated the plants’ actual ability to attenuate noise. Two videos (showing a traffic scene and a plant scene) were shown to 40 participants on video glasses. We detected and recorded EEG values with a portable electroencephalograph, and a comparison between the results of the two groups revealed that there was a highly significant asymmetry between the EEG activity of the vegetation scene and traffic scene groups. The results suggest that the emotions aroused by noise and visual stimuli are manifested in the synchronization of beta frequency band and the desynchronization of alpha frequency band, indicating that landscape plants can moderate or buffer the effects of noise. These findings indicate that landscape plants provide excess noise attenuating effects through subjects’ emotional processing, which we term ‘psychological noise reduction’

Effects of Changed Aircraft Noise Exposure on Experiential Qualities of Outdoor Recreational Areas

The literature indicates that sound and visual stimuli interact in the impression of landscapes. This paper examines the relationship between annoyance with sound from aircraft and annoyance with other area problems (e.g., careless bicycle riding, crowding, etc.), and how changes in noise exposure influence the perceived overall recreational quality of outdoor recreational areas. A panel study (telephone interviews) conducted before and after the relocation of Norway’s main airport in 1998 examined effects of decreased or increased noise exposure in nearby recreational areas (n = 591/455). Sound from aircraft annoyed the largest proportion of recreationists, except near the old airport after the change. The decrease in annoyance with sound from aircraft was accompanied by significant decreases in annoyance with most of the other area problems. Near the new airport annoyance with most factors beside sound from aircraft increased slightly, but not significantly. A relationship between aircraft noise annoyance and perceived overall recreational quality of the areas was found

On the study of the effects of sea views, greenery views and personal characteristics on noise annoyance perception at homes

Noise annoyance has caused significant adverse impacts on human beings and numerous efforts have been spent on mitigating annoyance problems. Natural greenery has been shown to be able to moderate annoyance problems at home but this conclusion was drawn without properly controlling the potential confounding factors. Furthermore, few have explored the moderation effect of a sea view. Accordingly, this study formulated a multivariate model to examine the impacts of natural views as well as personal characteristics on annoyance perception. A housing estate was selected in Hong Kong as the survey site for which some of the residents were exposed to greenery views, sea views, or both from their homes. Eight hundred and sixty-one responses were collected via questionnaire surveys and analyzed using an ordered logit model. The results suggest that both a greenery view and a sea view can moderate annoyance responses. Several individual’s personal characteristics are found to affect individuals’ annoyance perception. The duration of time spent daily at home is shown to have an influence on the moderation impact exerted by a greenery view, while the age of an individual is shown to have an influence on noise moderation effect exerted by a sea view.Department of Building Services Engineerin

Chapter 19 Noise pollution and its impact on human health and the environment

This chapter deals with (1) the basic theory of sound propagation; (2) an overview of noise pollution problem in view of policy and standards by the World Health Organization, the United States, and the European Union; (3) noise exposure sources from aircraft, road traffic and railways, in-vehicle, work, and construction sites, and occupations, and households; (4) the noise pollution impact on human health and the biological environment; (5) modeling of regional noise-affected habitats in protected and unprotected land areas and the marine environment; (6) noise control measures and sustainability in view of sustainable building design, noise mapping, and control measures such as barriers and berms along roadsides, acoustic building materials, roadway vehicle noise source control, road surface, and pavement materials; and (7) environmental noise pollution management measures and their impact on human health

Vergleichende Untersuchungen zur Laermbelaestigung von Autobahnen und anderen Strassen

SIGLEAvailable from Bibliothek des Instituts fuer Weltwirtschaft, ZBW, Duesternbrook Weg 120, D-24105 Kiel C 140431 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Erforderliche Schalldaemmung gegen Aussenlaerm Abschlussbericht

Available from TIB Hannover: RN 8908(91-050) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Vergleichende Untersuchungen zur Laermbelaestigung von Autobahnen und anderen Strassen

TIB: ZA 4681 (432)+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Felduntersuchung zur Stoerwirkung von Geraeuschen unterschiedlicher Schwankungsbreite Abschlussdatum: Maerz 1983

TIB: RN 8908 (83-063) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman