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No Access Submitted: 04 November 2010 Accepted: 28 September 2011 Published Online: 15 December 2011

A comparison between exposure-response relationships for wind turbine annoyance and annoyance due to other noise sources

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 130, 3746 (2011); https://doi.org/10.1121/1.3653984
Sabine A. Janssena) and Henk Vos
  • Department of Urban Environment and Safety, Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, P.O. Box 49, 2600 AA Delft, The Netherlands
    • Arno R. Eisses
  • Department of Acoustics and Sonar, Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, P.O. Box 96864, 2509 JG The Hague, The Netherlands
    • Eja Pedersenb)
  • Ecology and Environmental Science, Halmstad University, P.O. Box 823, SE-301 18 Halmstad, Sweden
    • more...View Affiliations

    • a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:

      b)Also at Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 414, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden.

    ABSTRACT
    Surveys have shown that noise from wind turbines is perceived as annoying by a proportion of residents living in their vicinity, apparently at much lower noise levels than those inducing annoyance due to other environmental sources. The aim of the present study was to derive the exposure-response relationship between wind turbine noise exposure in Lden and the expected percentage annoyed residents and to compare it to previously established relationships for industrial noise and transportation noise. In addition, the influence of several individual and situational factors was assessed. On the basis of available data from two surveys in Sweden (N = 341, N = 754) and one survey in the Netherlands (N = 725), a relationship was derived for annoyance indoors and for annoyance outdoors at the dwelling. In comparison to other sources of environmental noise, annoyance due to wind turbine noise was found at relatively low noise exposure levels. Furthermore, annoyance was lower among residents who received economical benefit from wind turbines and higher among residents for whom the wind turbine was visible from the dwelling. Age and noise sensitivity had similar effects on annoyance to those found in research on annoyance by other sources.

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    The authors would like to thank Dr. Frits van den Berg of the Amsterdam Public Health Service (formerly of the University of Groningen) for his much valued advice and for making his research data available to the authors. The present study was funded by the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning, and the Environment (VROM) of the Netherlands.

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