Differences in responses to vibration induced in residential environments by railway and construction activities

Abstract

This paper summarises the results of the Defra (UK) funded project `NANR209: Human response to vibration in residential environments'. The main aim of this project was to develop exposure-response relationships for the human response to environmental vibration as experienced by residents in their own homes. The sources of vibration considered were railway, construction, and internal sources outside of the resident's control. In this study, 1431 questionnaires were completed with UK residents in their own homes to determine self reported annoyance. Measurements of vibration inside and outside residences were conducted to determine each resident's vibration exposure. Presented in this paper are the exposure-response relationships derived from these data indicating the percentage of people expressing annoyance above a given threshold for a given vibration exposure. In particular, this paper reports the differences in responses to vibration induced by railway and construction activities. [Work funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) UK]