THE NOISE GAP INDEX: A NEW WAY TO DESCRIBE AND ASSESS AIRCRAFT NOISE IMPACTS ON THE COMMUNITY

It is well known that aircraft noise potentially disturbs (or annoys) the daily activities (such as communication, study, sleep, rest and relaxation) of residents living in the vicinity of airports. This particular type of annoyance can be a cause of stress and evidence is emerging that appears to associate some forms of health risk with this stress. Current research being undertaken by the authors is aimed at developing a better understanding of the impacts of aircraft noise on community health and well-being. The present paper is concerned with a major component of the research which involves the development of a new index for describing and assessing aircraft noise. Subsequently it is planned to apply this index in exploring the correlations that might exist between community health and well being and aircraft noise. The index, which has been termed the Noise Gap Index (NGI) has been developed on the assumption that people living in areas of different background noise may have different reactions to the same aircraft noise level. Parameters involved in the NGI are the LAeq of the background noise level and the LAeq of the aircraft noise, along with a Number-Above-Index (NA) and a Time-Above-Index (TA). An extensive noise monitoring program has been implemented in a number of suburbs around Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport and the resulting data applied in developing the NGI. The paper summarises these noise data, describes their analyses and finally presents the NGI. This paper reports work in progress.