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

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

“…It can be found that there was a significant reduction in average aircraft noise (LA eq ) levels by more than 32%, representing about 18 dB(A) in the same residential area (As-Seeb). A similar pattern was observed for L max noise values, where average pre-COVID-19 aircraft noise values of 76.81 dB(A) (Al-Harthy et al 2021 ) were found to be higher compared to the levels during the COVID-19 period of 49.78 dB(A). Overall, the decline of the measured L max noise by 35% or a value of 27 dB(A) when compared to the historic aircraft noise levels was very similar to that of LA eq values (Table 4 ).…”

“…This was found to be consistent with low aircraft noise levels measured during the same COVID-19 pandemic period. The previous study conducted by Al-Harthy et al ( 2021 ) before the COVID-19 pandemic reported that the majority of the residents complaining about aircraft noise annoyance were very high reaching about 84% compared to 41% during this current COVID-19 pandemic period. This drastic reduction in aircraft noise annoyance among the As-Seeb residents amid this pandemic is crucial to help develop future sustainable noise mitigation policies to improve future annoyance levels, when traffic is fully restored.…”

“… The historical noise levels were acquired from Al-Harthy et al ( 2021 ). The historical (measured in April–May 2019) and the current noise (measured in June 2020) levels consisted of 15 and 7 measured points, respectively.…”

“…It should be noted that there is no counterfactual of the same interviewed persons under this study during the pre-COVID-19 situation. However, a previously reported study on aircraft/airport noise annoyance levels conducted by Al-Harthy et al ( 2021 ) among the same exposed population in As-Seeb, Oman, from December 2018 to February 2019 was used as a proxy (Table 7 ) for comparison. While this pre-pandemic reported aircraft noise annoyance levels may not come from the same interviewees who participated in this current study, the former number of respondents ( n = 876) was about 78% higher than the latter ( n = 187).…”

“…The questionnaire was designed in both English and Arabic languages since these are the commonly used languages in Oman (see the supplementary material). Futhermore, in order to understand the changes in aircraft noise levels under this current study and pre-COVID-19 pandemic period, previously reported aircraft/airport noise annoyance levels conducted by (Al-Harthy et al 2021 ) among the same exposed population in As-Seeb, Oman, from December 2018 to February 2019 ( pre-COVID-19 pandemic period) were used as a proxy.…”