Joint noise annoyance: A field evaluation of models concerning road and railway exposure

Abstract

There is still controversy about how to deal appropriately with a noise exposure situation where two noise sources are of equal importance to an exposed population. Reanalyzing an older German study [Planungsbro Obermeyer (1983)] Ronnebaum et al. (1996) have shown that in a situation where no source is dominant and both sources produce more than 53 dB, Leq, overall annoyance is less than annoyance of the most annoying source. In an ongoing large-noise survey (N=2000) in the Austrian part of the Alps (TYROL) legal requirements force noise ingenieurs to use simple energy summation models in the absence of state of the art alternatives. Selected models [Flindell (1983), DELTA Acoustic & Vibration (1995)] are evaluated in a complex topographical situation (narrow valley with residential areas on the slopes) where noise annoyance due to railway noise has increased over the last decade in spite of a constant number of train passages. The results of this evaluation will be reported and discussed in terms of its usefulness for environmental risk assessments.