Assessment of noise levels and induced annoyance in nearby residential areas of an airport region in Oman

Contribution of outdoor noise-induced health risk in schools located in urbanized arid country

Ambient noise pollution is deemed as one of the major growing public health issues, especially in developing countries. Therefore, it is crucial to assess the impact of noise pollution on public health. The aim of this study is to investigate the health risk of noise exposure levels in three schools: Kaab Bin Zeyd of Basic Education (school A), Hail Al-Awamour Girls school (school B), and Al-Fikr School (school C) in Muscat, Oman. The study employed a survey of 300 students, dose-response models, and regression models to quantify health risk and to determine the relationship between noise levels and perceived noise annoyance sources. The study found average noise levels (L_Aeq) of school A (70.03±8.21 dBA), school B (69.54±7.75 dBA), and school C (55.95± 5.67 dBA) to be higher than WHO's outdoor schools environment standard of 55 dBA and European (EN16798-1) classroom's critical limits of 30-34 dBA. Most of the students from schools A (30.9%), B (33.3%), and C (63%) have reported noise produced from traffic as extremely annoyed compared to aircraft of 15.4%, 11.5%, and 27.2%, respectively. Regression analysis shows that perceived traffic noise was strongly correlated with L_Aeq in school A (R² =0.481), B (R² =0.121), and C (R² = 0.132) when compared with other subjective noise types. The health risk assessment results show that the percentage of highly annoyed (%HA) was higher in school A (15.2%) and school B (14.95%) than in school C (8.18%). The estimated highly sleep disturbed (%HSD) based on mean noise levels were almost the same in schools A (15.62%) and B (15.19%) but far higher compared to school C (6.01%). However, there was an association between the mean noise exposure levels and the risk of developing ischemic heart diseases (IHD) in school A (RR= 1.172, 95% CI: 1.020-1.334), school B (RR=1.167, 95% CI: 1.020-1.325), and school C (RR=1.051, 95% CI: 1.006-1.095). Moreover, attributable risk percentage (AR%) for school A (AR% =14.675, 95% CI: 2.028-25.037), school B (AR% =14.310, 95% CI: 1.960-24.528), and school C (AR% = 4.852, 95% CI:0.596-8.742) have shown that a substantial portion of the population could be prevented from developing IHD. It is expected that findings of the study can be applied in other arid regions with sprawl urbanized built environments.

Remote work: Aircraft noise implications, prediction, and management in the built environment

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly changed workplace management. Most workplaces have adopted the work-from-home policy to minimize the risk of community spread. Consequently, housing estates remain largely occupied during office hours. Since some housing estates are situated in the vicinity of an airport, noise pollution resulted from the takeoff and landing of aircraft is now more noticed by residents, causing annoyance. This problem would be most acute for those located directly under the flight path. Before the pandemic, such aircraft operations had lower effect on the residents because most of them were not at home but at workplaces. Evidently, it is timely that more emphasis should now be placed during urban planning to predict and minimize aircraft noise in the built environment. This article first defines the aircraft noise metrics commonly used to assess environmental impact. Preceded by an overview of how aircraft noise affects the built environment, this article reviews how various aircraft noise prediction models have been used in urban planning. Lastly, this article reviews how aircraft noise can be managed for better acoustic comfort of the residents. Anticipating the adoption of hybrid work arrangement moving forward, this article aims to provide urban planning professionals with an avenue to understand how aircraft noise can negatively affect the built environment, which, in turn, justify why prediction and management of aircraft noise should be emphasized from the outset of urban planning.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on aircraft noise levels, annoyance, and health effects in an urban area in Oman

This study aimed at investigating aircraft noise exposure levels, their annoyance, and potential health effects among communities living within airport catchment areas during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both field measurements and an online survey approach were used to investigate aircraft noise exposure levels, annoyance, and general health effects among residents living near Muscat International Airport (MCT) in Muscat, Oman, amid the COVID-19 period. The study found a drastic decline in aircraft noise levels due to the introduction of COVID-19 intervention measures such as lockdowns, social distancing, and closure of airports. In June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, average daily aircraft noise levels of LAeq (39.9 dB(A)) and Lmax (49.7 dB(A)) was observed compared to the previous year (April-May 2019) of 58.5 and 76.8 dB(A), indicating aircraft noise reductions level of 32% and 35%, respectively. The results of the online social survey among 187 participants showed that most (58.8%) of the respondents did not feel that the level of noise produced by aircraft causes annoyance. During the day, the vast majority of the interviewees did not complain of any annoyance during the morning (45.5%), afternoon (39.6%), and evening (31%) with only < 4% of residents have reported a very high degree of annoyance of during COVID-19 pandemic period. Very few people (17%) did complain of experiencing general health problems while 29% did not know of any potential health effects that could be attributed to aircraft noise exposures. Aircraft noise annoyance complaints among the As-Seeb residents during the pre-COVID-19 pandemic periods were reported to be extremely high reaching about 84% compared to 41% during this current COVID-19 pandemic period. These findings support the need to develop future sustainable noise mitigation policies in order to help reduce noise exposures and improve human health during post-COVID-19 pandemic periods.