Exposure-response relationship for railway noise annoyance in the Middle Rhine Valley

摘要

The railway line in the Middle Rhine Valley is part of the north-south transversal Rotterdam - Genoa. Residents living in the vicinity of the railway line suffer from high rail traffic density and, thus, high noise levels, in particular due to freight trains. Aiming at reducing the average sound level of the railway noise in the Rhine Valley by 10 dB the Ministries for Environment and Transport of the German states Hesse and Rhineland Palatinate published a noise control program called "Quite Rhine Valley" in 2010. Among others, for the purpose of noise monitoring the program includes the implementation of a railway noise impact index (MRI) describing the number of highly annoyed people during day time and the average number of additional nocturnal railway noise-induced awakenings (see contribution of Kerstin Giering et al. in the same Internoise session). This contribution presents results of a socio-acoustical survey with altogether 1211 residents carried out in the Middle Rhine Valley in order to provide an exposure response function for the 'annoyance part' of the MRI. Among others, the results indicate that the so-called railway bonus can be questioned at least for the noise situation in the Rhine Valley.