Assessment of noise annoyance in three distinct communities living in close proximity to a UK regional airport.

Previous researchers have considered demographic variables relating to deprivation such as income, social status and home ownership, and their relationship with both community and individual reaction to environmental noise. These variables have been found not to be important. Intuitively this seems implausible and the findings of a recent African study increase the doubt. The present study aims to look at the effect of deprivation using an index of deprivation developed and adopted in a different context. A postal questionnaire was used to survey three communities around Birmingham International Airport, UK. The main selection criterion for these areas was the Townsend overall index of deprivation (ODI). The typical aircraft noise exposure levels for all of the survey areas were determined from the aircraft noise exposure contours provided by Birmingham International Airport. An overall response rate of 40% was achieved and it was found that the area of lowest deprivation (greatest affluence) has a significantly greater proportion of highly annoyed persons due to aircraft noise than the other two areas, with the lowest noise exposure category accounting for the significant difference. The differences in reaction are not explained by deprivation as measured by the ODI nor by other factors previously reported in the literature and by those that were measured in this study. However, a link between housing type and noise annoyance due to aircraft noise suggests an avenue for further research.