Effects of a hovering unmanned aerial vehicle on urban soundscapes perception
Several industry leaders and governmental agencies are currently investigating the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or ‘drones’ as commonly known, for an ever-growing number of applications from blue light services to parcel delivery. For the specific case of the delivery sector, drones can alleviate road space usage and also lead to reductions in CO₂ and air pollution emissions, compared to traditional diesel-powered vehicles. However, due to their unconventional acoustic characteristics and operational manoeuvres, it is uncertain how communities will respond to drone operations. Noise has been suggested as a major barrier to public acceptance of drone operations in urban areas. In this paper, a series of audio-visual scenarios were created to investigate the effects of drone noise on the reported loudness, annoyance and pleasantness of seven different types of urban soundscapes. In soundscapes highly impacted by road traffic noise, the presence of drone noise lead to small changes in the perceived loudness, annoyance and pleasantness. In soundscapes with reduced road traffic noise, the participants reported a significantly higher perceived loudness and annoyance and a lower pleasantness with the presence of the same drone noise. For instance, the reported annoyance increased from 2.3 ± 0.8 (without drone noise) to 6.8 ± 0.3 (with drone noise), in an 11-point scale (0-not at all, 10-extremely). Based on these results, the concentration of drone operations along flight paths through busy roads might aid in the mitigation of the overall community noise impact caused by drones.
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Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/13619209
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Supplemental Notes:
- © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
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Authors:
- Torija, Antonio J
- Li, Zhengguang
- Self, Rod H
- Publication Date: 2020-1
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Web
- Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
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Serial:
- Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
- Volume: 78
- Issue Number: 0
- Publisher: Elsevier
- ISSN: 1361-9209
- Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13619209
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Aircraft noise; Drones; Environmental impacts; Ground effect; Perception; Sound; Traffic noise; Urban areas
- Subject Areas: Aviation; Environment; Highways; Vehicles and Equipment;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01728099
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Jan 28 2020 9:42AM