Monitoring annoyance and stress effects of wind turbines on nearby residents: A comparison of U.S. and European samples
As wind turbines and the number of wind projects scale throughout the world, a growing number of individuals might be affected by these structures. For some people, wind turbine sounds and their effects on the landscape can be annoying and could even prompt stress reactions. This comparative study a...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2019-11-01
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| Series: | Environment International |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018323353 |
| _version_ | 1818990334040866816 |
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| author | Gundula Hübner Johannes Pohl Ben Hoen Jeremy Firestone Joseph Rand Debi Elliott Ryan Haac |
| author_facet | Gundula Hübner Johannes Pohl Ben Hoen Jeremy Firestone Joseph Rand Debi Elliott Ryan Haac |
| author_sort | Gundula Hübner |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | As wind turbines and the number of wind projects scale throughout the world, a growing number of individuals might be affected by these structures. For some people, wind turbine sounds and their effects on the landscape can be annoying and could even prompt stress reactions. This comparative study analyzed a combined sample of survey respondents from the U.S., Germany and Switzerland. It utilized a newly developed assessment scale (AS-Scale) to reliably characterize these stress-impacted individuals living within populations near turbines. Findings indicate low prevalence of annoyance, stress symptoms and coping strategies. Noise annoyance stress (NAS-Scale) was negatively correlated with the perceptions of a lack of fairness of the wind project's planning and development process, among other subjective variables. Objective indicators, such as the distance from the nearest turbine and sound pressure level modeled for each respondent, were not found to be correlated to noise annoyance. Similar result patterns were found across the European and U.S. samples. Keywords: Wind turbine annoyance assessment, Stress effects, Annoyance monitoring, International comparison |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T19:52:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3cb73a6385254ca5a499de876ebcb071 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0160-4120 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T19:52:43Z |
| publishDate | 2019-11-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environment International |
| spelling | doaj.art-3cb73a6385254ca5a499de876ebcb0712022-12-21T19:28:16ZengElsevierEnvironment International0160-41202019-11-01132Monitoring annoyance and stress effects of wind turbines on nearby residents: A comparison of U.S. and European samplesGundula Hübner0Johannes Pohl1Ben Hoen2Jeremy Firestone3Joseph Rand4Debi Elliott5Ryan Haac6Institute of Psychology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany; Department of Psychology, MSH Medical School Hamburg, University of Applied Science and Medical University, Hamburg, GermanyInstitute of Psychology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany; Department of Psychology, MSH Medical School Hamburg, University of Applied Science and Medical University, Hamburg, Germany; Corresponding author at: Institute of Psychology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, 06099 Halle (Saale), Germany.Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USACollege of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USALawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USARegional Research Institute for Human Services (RRI), Portland State University, Portland, OR, USAResource Systems Group Inc., White River Junction, VT, USAAs wind turbines and the number of wind projects scale throughout the world, a growing number of individuals might be affected by these structures. For some people, wind turbine sounds and their effects on the landscape can be annoying and could even prompt stress reactions. This comparative study analyzed a combined sample of survey respondents from the U.S., Germany and Switzerland. It utilized a newly developed assessment scale (AS-Scale) to reliably characterize these stress-impacted individuals living within populations near turbines. Findings indicate low prevalence of annoyance, stress symptoms and coping strategies. Noise annoyance stress (NAS-Scale) was negatively correlated with the perceptions of a lack of fairness of the wind project's planning and development process, among other subjective variables. Objective indicators, such as the distance from the nearest turbine and sound pressure level modeled for each respondent, were not found to be correlated to noise annoyance. Similar result patterns were found across the European and U.S. samples. Keywords: Wind turbine annoyance assessment, Stress effects, Annoyance monitoring, International comparisonhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018323353 |
| spellingShingle | Gundula Hübner Johannes Pohl Ben Hoen Jeremy Firestone Joseph Rand Debi Elliott Ryan Haac Monitoring annoyance and stress effects of wind turbines on nearby residents: A comparison of U.S. and European samples Environment International |
| title | Monitoring annoyance and stress effects of wind turbines on nearby residents: A comparison of U.S. and European samples |
| title_full | Monitoring annoyance and stress effects of wind turbines on nearby residents: A comparison of U.S. and European samples |
| title_fullStr | Monitoring annoyance and stress effects of wind turbines on nearby residents: A comparison of U.S. and European samples |
| title_full_unstemmed | Monitoring annoyance and stress effects of wind turbines on nearby residents: A comparison of U.S. and European samples |
| title_short | Monitoring annoyance and stress effects of wind turbines on nearby residents: A comparison of U.S. and European samples |
| title_sort | monitoring annoyance and stress effects of wind turbines on nearby residents a comparison of u s and european samples |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018323353 |
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