The economic value of aircraft noise effects: a UK perspective

The quantification of the effects of aircraft noise on health and quality of life and the associated monetisation of those effects has taken on significance as a major field of study with important implications in policy making and business management. Good quality studies have been conducted in this matter. Although these studies have enriched the understanding of the magnitude and complexity of this matter, several gaps remain, challenging decision making on aircraft noise management at macro and micro levels. This paper is part of a series of papers on understanding and communicating the exposure to, and impacts from aviation noise and developing a balanced scorecard for informed decision-making. In particular, this paper aims to provide an overview of the most up to date and robust monetisation methodologies and the context for its application to UK aviation policy. It presents some estimates for London Airports to show the change in the cost of aircraft noise effects on health and annoyance over 5 years. We suggest a set of principles and a process that can guide monetisation efforts of aircraft noise effects. We argue that monetary values should be considered as indicative and should only be used to understand trends rather than quantify the effects in an absolute sense.

[1]  B. Berry,et al.  The economic and social value of aircraft noise effects: A critical review of the state of the art , 2014 .

[2]  S. Hagard.  England , 1995, The Knight and the Blast Furnace.

[3]  Mathias Basner,et al.  Inter-individual Differences in the Effects of Aircraft Noise on Sleep Fragmentation. , 2016, Sleep.

[4]  Wolfgang Babisch,et al.  The quantitative relationship between road traffic noise and hypertension: a meta-analysis , 2012, Journal of hypertension.

[5]  Irene van Kamp,et al.  Exposure-response relationship of the association between aircraft noise and the risk of hypertension. , 2009, Noise & health.

[6]  N D Porter,et al.  Health effect-based noise assessment methods: a review and feasibilty study. , 1998 .

[7]  Dave Southgate,et al.  The next generation of supplementary aviation noise metrics and their use in managing aviation noise. , 2014 .

[8]  Francesca Dominici,et al.  Residential exposure to aircraft noise and hospital admissions for cardiovascular diseases: multi-airport retrospective study , 2013, BMJ.

[9]  Who Regional Office for Europe,et al.  Burden of Disease from Environmental Noise: Quantification of Healthy Life Years Lost in Europe , 2011 .

[10]  Wolfgang Babisch,et al.  Transportation noise and cardiovascular risk , 2006 .

[11]  Vincent Mestre,et al.  A first-principles model for estimating the prevalence of annoyance with aircraft noise exposure. , 2011, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[12]  Aki Tsuchiya,et al.  The cost of hypertension-related ill-health attributable to environmental noise. , 2013, Noise & health.

[13]  U. Müller,et al.  The potential of mostly non-acoustic factors to reduce and better predict long-term aircraft noise annoyance - examples from three European airports assessed in telephone interviews and field studies - Results of the COSMA Study , 2014 .

[14]  U. Müller,et al.  The impact of acoustic and non-acoustic factors on short-term aircraft noise annoyance ratings –Results of the COSMA field study at a major German Airport , 2014 .

[15]  N. Hanley,et al.  Cost–Benefit Analysis and the Environment , 1993 .

[16]  Elements for a position paper on night-time transportation noise and sleep disturbance , 2003 .

[17]  Sylvia Richardson,et al.  Aircraft noise and cardiovascular disease near Heathrow airport in London: small area study , 2014, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[18]  M. Tsechkovski,et al.  WHO Regional Office for Europe , 1993, The Lancet.

[19]  Ian H. Flindell,et al.  Estimating dose-relationships between noise exposure and human health impacts in the UK , 2009 .