Balancing the research approach on wind turbine effects through improving psychological factors that affect community response

Abstract

There is a substantial need to find a balanced approach to deal with people’s concern about wind turbine effects. Indeed, the psychological factors that affect community response will be an important facet in this complete agenda development. Many of these relevant issues are related to the soundscape concept which was adopted as an approach to provide a more holistic evaluation of “noise” and its effects on the quality of life. Moreover, the soundscape technique uses a variety of investigation techniques, taxonomy and measurement methods. This is a necessary protocol to approach a subject or phenomenon, to improve the validity of the research or design outcome and to reduce the uncertainty of relying only on one approach. This presentation will use recent data improving the understanding about the role of psychoacoustic parameters going beyond equivalent continuous sound level in wind turbine affects in order to discuss relevant psychological factors based on soundscape techniques.