Abstract
Relationships between noise exposure and transportation noise induced annoyance have been studied
extensively for several decades. The annoyance due to aircraft noise exposure is in the present
paper assumed to be influenced by the day–night yearly average sound level (DNL). It has long
been recognized that the annoyance also depends on non-DNL factors, but this is complicated—
resulting in a variety of different modeling strategies. Motivated by this, the community tolerance
level (CTL) was introduced in 2011 for a loudness-based psychometric function. It is a single
parameter that accounts for the aggregate influence of other factors. This paper suggests and investigates
different methods for the measurement of the CTL. The methods are illustrated on data
found in the literature, on recent surveys around two Norwegian airports, and on simulated data.
The results from the presented methods differ significantly. An elementary method is shown to give
a measurement of the CTL with smaller uncertainty, and is recommended as a replacement for the
originally suggested least-squares method. Methods for evaluating the measurement uncertainty are
also presented.
extensively for several decades. The annoyance due to aircraft noise exposure is in the present
paper assumed to be influenced by the day–night yearly average sound level (DNL). It has long
been recognized that the annoyance also depends on non-DNL factors, but this is complicated—
resulting in a variety of different modeling strategies. Motivated by this, the community tolerance
level (CTL) was introduced in 2011 for a loudness-based psychometric function. It is a single
parameter that accounts for the aggregate influence of other factors. This paper suggests and investigates
different methods for the measurement of the CTL. The methods are illustrated on data
found in the literature, on recent surveys around two Norwegian airports, and on simulated data.
The results from the presented methods differ significantly. An elementary method is shown to give
a measurement of the CTL with smaller uncertainty, and is recommended as a replacement for the
originally suggested least-squares method. Methods for evaluating the measurement uncertainty are
also presented.
