Legal consequences of train-induced structure borne noise and vibration in residential buildings

Abstract

The development of subways in cities has provided great comfort to the citizens, but it has brought adverse effects to the residents of the buildings adjacent to the subway lines. The main effects are Structure Borne Noise (SBN) and Structure Borne Vibration (SBV), which are identified as environmental challenges. In this research, the extent and seriousness of SBV and SBN annoyances to people were investigated. This is made in two steps; first a thorough field test was made to evaluate the level of train-induced noise and vibration; then, a comprehensive investigation was made on the level of people annoyance from train-induced vibration and noise, using results obtained from interviews and questionnaires. The results obtained indicate that health concerns, economic losses, building damages and social harms were the most important factors, which cause annoyance of the citizens. These annoyances caused citizens to take their complaints to judiciary system in the world. In the second part of this research, the effectiveness and sufficiency of the current laws and legislation to protect the citizen against SBV/SBN annoyance are evaluated. The results indicate that there are limitations in the current laws in regard to crime determination, criminal identification, estimation of damages to citizens, citizen rights regarding the annoyance caused by SBV/SBN. Also, there is a lack of legal awareness among the citizens who do not know how to get their legal rights. The results of this research showed that the judicial bodies should improve and extend the current laws and make more low-enforcement to protect people against the growing problem of SBV/SBN. Also, there is a need to make people more familiar with their civil rights in regard to SBN and SBV.

Evaluation of indicators of railway-induced annoying vibration based on building measurements developed by TOD: a discussion

“…However, there are still some controversies in the assessment of environmental vibration. It is widely recognized that the indicators used in environmental vibration evaluation vary across different countries and regions, leading to a lack of harmonized assessment methods in this field [12][13][14], as show in table 1. Due to the complexity of the phenomena and the large number of associated parameters, the application of the relevant standards to each other is difficult and sometimes confusing [15,16].…”

Analysis of Vibration Responses Induced by Metro Operations Using a Probabilistic Method

“…However, noise and vibration reduction designs based on the above methods often cannot achieve the desired effect in actual engineering. This may lead to public complaints and even violations of regulations related to environmental vibration, resulting in adverse social impacts [13].…”

Method for Controlling Full-Frequency Band Environment Vibration by Coordinating Metro Vibration Sources and Propagation Paths

“…In the past two years, multiple universities and scientific research institutions in Tianjin, such as Nankai University, have complained about the adverse effects of ground vibration below 10 Hz on instruments in the FST section, resulting in economic losses and legal consequences for the metro operator. Meanwhile, the legal consequences of train-induced structure-borne noise and vibration are also very noteworthy [47]. Taking China as an example, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution [48] was issued in 2022, which strictly regulates noise pollution from the national level, including the issue of train-induced structural secondary noise.…”