Noise from neighbours has been shown to be one of the most noise annoying sources in Germany, but research on the influencing factors for the annoyance ratings is scarce. Therefore, we investigated whether different personal and contextual (social, physical) factors contribute to neighbour noise annoyance to better understand the neighbour noise annoyance situation. A population-representative survey in four areas in Germany was conducted, with each area further stratified according to their density of agglomeration (inner city, urban outskirt, rural area). Randomly selected residents from each area were invited by mail to participate in the study, either online or via a paper–pencil mode. Noise annoyance was assessed for different noise sources (e.g., neighbourhood, road, railway, aircrafts, different types of industry). In total, 1973 questionnaires were completed. We identified several factors to be predictive of neighbour noise annoyance: satisfaction with the neighbourhood, relationship with neighbours, residential satisfaction, noise sensitivity, and density of agglomeration for people living in the inner city in comparison to rural areas. Particularly, social aspects such as the relationship with neighbours and satisfaction with the neighbourhood have been shown to affect neighbour noise annoyance.

Annoyance and sleep disturbances due to aircraft noise represent a major burden of disease. They are considered as health effects as well as part of the causal pathway from exposure to long-term effects such as cardiovascular and metabolic diseases as well as mental disorders (e.g. depression). Both annoyance and sleep disturbance are not only determined by the noise exposure, but also to a considerable extent by non-acoustic factors. This chapter summarises the most relevant non-acoustic factors and briefly explains their mechanisms on annoyance and sleep as well as the potential to address these factors via intervention methods aiming at the reduction of adverse noise outcomes and an increase in the quality of life of airport residents. Here, the focus is on airport management measures that are considered to help improve the residents’ coping capacity. Findings from the ANIMA case studies with regard to main aspects of quality of life in airport residents around European airports are briefly reported and recommendations for a community-oriented airport management are derived.

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Aircraft noise exposure is an environmental stressor and has been linked to various adverse health outcomes, such as annoyance, sleep disturbance, and cardiovascular diseases. Aircraft noise can trigger both psychological (annoyance and disturbance) and physiological stress responses (e.g. activation of the cardiovascular system and release of stress hormones). People are usually able to deal with this kind of stressor. However, a constant exposure to aircraft noise can cause a continuous state of stress. This in turn can constrain a person’s ability to regenerate and restore its resources to cope with the noise situation. As a consequence, the risk for certain negative health outcomes can be increased. Within the ANIMA project, literature reviews on the effects of aircraft noise on health outcomes have been performed. This chapter gives an overview of the relevant health outcomes affected by aircraft noise and summarises the results of different reviews and studies on these outcomes. Additionally, the underlying mechanisms of how noise impacts health are explained for daytime as well as night-time aircraft noise exposure (i.e. while sleeping). Further, the relevance of considering not only the general population, but vulnerable groups as well (such as children and elderly people) is described. Lastly, open questions for further studies are presented and discussed.