Jet engines, wind turbines, and AI: community reactions to new sounds

Abstract

When jet engine-powered commercial aircraft started flying in and out of airports in the mid-20th century, surrounding communities-often in rural areas-were exposed to unprecedented sound levels. A straight line can be drawn from the reactions of those communities to today's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airport acoustical requirements. Community reactions to utility-scale wind energy facilities in the late 20th and early 21st centuries led to a bevy of local legislation around the United States, some of which has been insightful and helpful. More recently, society's ever-increasing demand for bits and bytes is introducing suburban areas to data centers-campuses of multi-story buildings requiring access to high volumes of cool air, fast Internet connections, and megawatts of electricity. Community reactions to the resulting environmental sound levels are again driving regulation and legislation. In all these cases, community reactions have driven the narrative. Instead of responding to community reactions, the noise control engineering community and their clients could be more proactive-the professionals could lead the narrative. Ideas about how to achieve this level of proactivity are discussed.