Assessment of community noise exposure from rifle shooting (original) (raw)

Community Reaction to Noise from an Artillery Range

Noise Control Engineering Journal, 1991

The impact of noise from an artillery range on the surrounding community was assessed in a socio-acoustic investigation. Personal interviews were conducted with 1,626 residents. A composite measure of an individual's general reaction to the noise was constructed from responses to questions which included ratings of dissatisfaction, annoyance, and the extent of the effect of the noise. This also included reported activity disturbances, disposition towards complaint, and the effect of noise-induced vibration. Noise exposure at each surveyed residence was calculated in terms of nine exposure measures, on the basis of extensive noise measurements. The dose/response function indicated that the level of artillery noise required to produce a given level of reaction was about 30 dB(A) lower than the level of intermittent non-impulsive noise. In terms of C-weighted Leq, the difference is less. The present study also indicated that psychological factors, such as attitude and sensitivity to noise, were important determinants of reaction to the noise. The relationship between reaction and exposure was not strong for any exposure measure. However, the results of the present study, together w.i.'th the results of other published studies, suggest that units based on the equalenergy principle are superior to other measures, and that the unweighted peak level is acceptable as a measure of the level of an individual impulse, for a broad range of types of impulsive noise. The results also suggest that the number of audible events may add significantly to the predictive power of equal-energy units in relation to community reaction.

Community reaction to noise from a suburban rifle range

Journal of Sound and Vibration, 1982

A socio-acoustic investigation was undertaken in order to assess the impact on a residential community of noise from rifle shooting. Personal interviews with 201 residents provided data on subjective reaction to the noise. The responses given in a number of questions including ratings of annoyance and dissatisfaction, reports of activity disturbances and dispositions towards complaint action were used to derive a composite measure of an individual's overall general reaction. The dose-response function was found to be broadly similar to that reported by other researchers. The present results indicated that reaction was determined largely by psychological variables such as attitude and noise sensitivity which interact with exposure to modify the effect that the noise has on the individual. This study is seen as having implications for land-use planning around shooting ranges.

Assessment of military shooting noise

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2008

The assessment of the impact of noise exposure on the population is a fundamental step in noise abatement. It includes the establishment of exposure-response relationships and the setting of impact thresholds that specify the protection level for the population and eventually trigger mitigating measures to reduce noise exposure. In Switzerland, the impact thresholds should be set so that, in the light of the current scientific knowledge and experience, noise exposure below these thresholds do not seriously disturb the well-being of the population. For most current noise sources such as roads, railways and airports impact thresholds are already defined as part of the noise abatement legislation. Yet, no impact thresholds for military shooting grounds have been specified so far. Therefore a study was carried out in order to assess the impact of military noise exposure. The research included the calculation of noise exposure of eight military shooting grounds ranging from small infantry shooting ranges to expanded artillery and tank training facilities as well as a survey with over 1000 residents in the neighbourhood of these sites. Preliminary results suggest that although the responses of the population to military noise are rather dispersed, data should be sufficiently consistent to establish an exposure-response relationship.

An Investigation of Community Attitudes Toward Blast Noise: Complaint Survey Protocol

2010

Current blast noise impact assessment procedures do not fully meet the military's noise management needs. In particular, it is unclear how an installation or range commander should interpret blast noise complaints. The following report looks at whether there are significant differences in reported annoyance to complaint-referenced blast events between complainants and their non-complaining neighbors. It was found that complainants were significantly more annoyed to both complaint-referenced blast events and general military noise in comparison to their non-complaining neighbors. These findings are discussed in the context of range management.

Theory and Design Tools For Studies of Reactions to Abrupt Changes in Noise Exposure

Study plans, a pre-tested questionnaire, a sample design evaluation tool, a community publicity monitoring plan, and a theoretical framework have been developed to support combined social/acoustical surveys of residents' reactions to an abrupt change in environmental noise, Secondary analyses of more than 20 previous surveys provide estimates of three parameters of a study simulation model; within individual variability, between study wave variability, and between neighborhood variability in response to community noise. The simulation model predicts the precision of the results from social surveys of reactions to noise, including changes in noise. When the study simulation model analyzed the population distribution, noise exposure environments and feasible noise measurement program at a proposed noise change survey site, it was concluded that the site could not yield sufficient precise estimates of human reaction model to justify conducting a survey. Additional secondary analyse...

Correct and Effective Characterization of Fire-arms Noise: a Basic Aspect to Provide Reliable Input Data for the Reduction of Emitted Noise from Shooting Ranges in Urbanized Area

2012

A large number of noise sources in urbanized areas involve health impairment risk or important annoyance, and characterization and control techniques have been developed to improve the safety and wellbeing of dwellers. But there is a large variety of gun shots due to both the gun and the used cartridges, and it is almost impossible to dictate a general rule to manage in detail this topic. A clear example of this situations is represented by a shooting range, a limited and well defined installation in which shooting activities are practiced. The shooting ranges, which were since a long time usually located in former military facilities, are nowadays in proximity of densely dwelled areas, due to the recent impressive urbanization rate. Hence, this situation makes necessary that a number of shooting ranges must nowadays accomplish the urban noise classifications. The situation appears to be quite complex in Italy since the national regulations for the measurement and management of the ...

Community response to noise from short-term military aircraft exercise

Journal of Sound and Vibration, 1995

A study of community reactions to noise in the vicinity of a Norwegian airport has been conducted in connection with two large military exercises. An extensive questionnaire was presented to a random sample of residents before, during and after each exercise. More than 3400 interviews were completed. The group of respondents also contained a panel of about 200 people who were given identical questions in each survey series. This paper presents the results with an emphasis on the data from this panel. The results indicate that the general reaction to aircraft noise is not altered by short periods with increased noise exposure.

GUIDELINES FOR REPORTING CORE INFORMATION FROM COMMUNITY NOISE REACTION SURVEYS

Journal of Sound and Vibration, 1997

Difficulties in comparing the results from studies have interfered with accumulating knowledge about communities' responses to noise. Gaps in the information presented in publications have been especially serious problems for combined social and acoustical surveys of residents' responses to environmental noise. In an attempt to alleviate this 0022-460X/97/400685 + 11 $25.00/0/sv971144 7 1997 Academic Press Limited