Results of a visitor survey of the acoustic environment at the Grand Canyon National Park

Abstract

For the last decade, multiple studies have been conducted at nationalparks using the traditional uni-polar annoyance questions and the dose-response concept to determine the effects of aircraft noise on park visitors. This survey used pleasantness as a bipolar scale and breaks the hike into segments so as to understand the overall hike’s assessment through its parts. This survey was conducted on three different trails at the Grand Canyon: the Hermit trail, a backcountry trail with a large amount of aircraft noise; the Widforss trail, a backcountry trail with minimal aircraft noise; and the Bright Angel trail, a maintained trail with a small amount of aircraft noise but many hikers. Helicopter noise is found to be the only major unpleasant noise. Segments for which no aircraft are noticed are judged to be primarily very pleasant. The “average” judgment with helicopters noticed falls between neutral and slightly pleasant, which is a drop of almost three categories out of a total of seven. The study finds that visitor perception of pleasantness of the acoustic environment at the Grand Canyonis significantly, negatively affected by helicopter overflights near trails.