Plenaries

Understanding and Complying with the New York City Construction Noise Regulation

Sunday evening (at the opening ceremony)

Erich Thalheimer
Parsons Brinckerhoff
617-960-5039
Thalheimer@pbworld.com

Charles Shamoon
New York Department of Environmental Protection

In 2003, Mayor Michael Bloomberg initiated the first overhaul of the New York City Noise Code in 30 years. After an inclusive process involving the public, advocates and industry representatives, an equitable new Noise Code was passed effective 1 July 2007. The City’s Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP) assembled a team of construction noise experts to assist in researching currently available noise control methods, establishing meaningful noise criteria, setting requirements for contractors to follow, imposing the concept of "cure" periods, and reasonable fines for non-compliance. The new regulations emphasize proactive avoidance of construction noise by requiring contractors to develop Noise Control Plans and by establishing equipment noise emission limits. Guidelines are also provided for mitigating particularly loud construction devices such as pile drivers and jackhammers. The NYC DEP Noise Rules have been covered in print and Internet news media world-wide, were recently cited as a noteworthy example in the new book Technology for a Quieter America by the National Academy of Engineering, and have won several independent awards including the 2009 ACEC Silver Award and the 2010 NHCA Safe-In-Sound Award.

Erich Thalheimer is a Senior Acoustical Engineer with Parsons Brinckerhoff and has been a practitioner of noise measurement, modeling, analysis and control for over 25 years. He is Board Certified by the Institute of Noise Control Engineering. Most notably he managed the noise control program at the country’s largest infrastructure project, the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, also known as the Big Dig in Boston. The lessons learned there were put to immediate use as he then developed FHWA’s Roadway Construction Noise Model (RCNM) and associated handbook. NYC DEP retained Mr. Thalheimer’s services in 2004 to assist them in developing the New York City Construction Noise Rules which went into effect in July 2007.

Charles Shamoon is an Assistant Counsel with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. Mr. Shamoon holds a degree in engineering as well as a post-graduate degree in law. He has been litigating and assisting in prosecutions for community noise violations for over 20 years in administrative as well as higher courts. He was primarily responsible for formulating and organizing NYC DEP's efforts to create the new New York City Construction Noise Rules which went into effect in July 2007.

Transportation noise effects on children’s cognition and health

Monday morning

Dr. Charlotte Clark
Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine

c.clark@qmul.ac.uk

Phone: +44 20 7882 5728

Charlotte Clark is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental and Mental Health Epidemiology at Barts & the London School of Medicine, Queen Mary University of London. Her research focuses on how the environment can influence performance and cognition, mental health, well-being, quality of life, and behaviour. She has worked in the field of noise effects on health and cognition for ten years. She co-managed the European RANCH project, which examined the effect of aircraft and road traffic noise exposure on children’s health and cognition and is currently co-director of the European Network on Noise and Health - a network of over 30 partners across Europe tasked with identifying future research needs and priorities for noise and health research.

Increasing pollution from transport in the urban environment, has led to a policy need to advance and synthesise knowledge about the impact of aircraft and road traffic noise exposure on children’s cognitive development, health, and well-being. Overall, evidence for effects of environmental noise on children’s cognition has strengthened, demonstrating relationships between chronic noise exposure at school and poorer reading ability and memory. Research has also related classroom acoustic conditions to children’s learning outcomes focusing upon noise interference with verbal communication as the mechanism for the effect. Such evidence informs guidelines for external environmental noise exposure and the planning of school environments; and informs the design of the internal acoustic environment and potential interventions, although little is currently known about the effectiveness of interventions. There is convincing evidence that aircraft and road traffic noise are associated with increased levels of annoyance in children: aircraft noise may also be associated with raised blood pressure and hyperactivity. Gaps in knowledge remain about effects of environmental noise exposure during infancy; on children’s social behaviour; and about effects of co-exposure to air pollution. Environmental noise could have public health implications for children’s development and health, given the chronic nature of exposure and the number of children potentially exposed.

Continuing efforts and challenges to reduce the impact of airport noise in Japan

Wednesday afternoon

Dr. Ichiro Yamada
Japan Aviation Environment Research Center
Airport Environment Improvement Foundation
K5 Bldg., 1-6-5, Haneda Kuhkou, Ohta-ku, Tokyo 144-0041, Japan
i-yamada@center.aeif.or.jp

Dr. Ichiro Yamada is Head of Aviation Environment Research Center at Airport Environment Improvement Foundation since 2001 as well as an auditor of Kobayasi Institute of Physical Research (KIPR) since 2010. He now serves as the President of INCE/J for fiscal 2010-2011. Ichiro Yamada graduated from school of engineering at University of Tokyo in 1971 and got a doctoral degree in engineering at University of Tokyo in 1991. He worked as a researcher at Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science, University of Tokyo (1971-1980) and at KIPR (1980-2001). Ichiro Yamada has been engaged in research work on signal processing techniques applied to outdoor sound propagation and on noise evaluation applied to noise around civil airports and military facilities. He has also studied noise modeling and unattended monitoring of aircraft noise and artillery sound.

Aircraft noise is a crucial public nuisance, which the Japanese Government once tackled by trying every possible means in pursuit of effective measures for mitigation of severe noise impact in the vicinity of city airports over several decades. Owing to those efforts, together with the introduction of low-noise aircraft, noise damage around airports was drastically reduced. However, a rapid increase in air traffic has brought an enlargement of gray zone instead of red. Aircraft noise still remains to be a challenging issue toward a further harmonized growth of air transportation and cities, especially for the quality of life in cities. This paper reviews a brief history of noise policies such as land use control, airport construction on the sea surface and environmental communication with the local community for the partnership. This paper also reviews the recent revision of noise guidelines and laws, issues of noise impact due to airport ground activities and issues of incessant fly-over events due to constraints in departure and approach route-designs over a densely populated city area. Finally, this paper describes recent advances in technologies for noise modeling, sound source identification for unattended noise monitoring, and technologies for controlling noise impact by a more precise method of aircraft navigation.