An analysis of community complaints to noise

Noise complaints received Army‐wide for a one‐year period were analyzed (a) to determine the relationship between the nature of the complaint and the type of noise and (b) to determine the relationship between complaints and the day–night level (DNL). For blast noise, 77% of complaints mentioned vibration or physical damage or both, thus confirming the validity of the C‐weighted DNL as a better measure of blast noise than the A‐weighted DNL. The relationship between DNL and complaints, however, was a very weak one. Instead, the data confirmed an independent finding of a recent study of Air Force noise complaints—that complaints are generated by unusual rather than typical noise levels. Since a valid measure of community response to noise should be functionally relatable to the noise dose, complaints do not appear to be a good measure of the community response. To deal with the wide variability in the emotional tone of the complaints a psychological model was developed and tested. The implications of this ...