The effects of aircraft and rail traffic noise on residents’ sleep and annoyance - an overview and results from former and currently ongoing field studies around Cologne/Bonn, Frankfurt airport and in the Rhine valley

Abstract

The IATA (International Air Transport Association) predicts a global annual growth of 5-6 % for the number of aircraft passengers as well as for cargo flights in the upcoming years. The German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development assumes a yearly increase for road and rail freight traffic of 2.3 % each until 2030, and the German National Academy of Science and Engineering published a prognosis that passenger car traffic in 2020 will have been increased by 20 % compared to 2002. Technological progress in noise reduction for all traffic modes has been largely cancelled out by these increases in traffic numbers so that environmental noise problems caused by all transportation modes are still rising. The main acute effects of noise on residents are sleep disturbances and annoyance reactions. This talk will cover the methodology and results of sleep studies around Cologne/Bonn and Frankfurt airport and near railway tracks in the Rhine Valley. Annoyance reactions do not only depend on the acoustics of the noise source and its sound pressure level and frequency composition. Also personal and social variables, so-called moderators, have to be considered. These aspects are part of a currently ongoing comprehensive EU study, which will be presented in an overview.