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This chapter addresses the political history of aircraft noise annoyance and its relationship to sustainability.

Using extensive case studies and secondary sources, the chapter shows how a particular approach to noise annoyance that emerged already accepted large-scale annoyance. The focus is directed towards the black boxing of political decisions with scientific knowledge.

This contribution demonstrates that noise annoyance policy has shaped citizens’ perceptions of aircraft sound and has intensified the associated annoyance. Finally, the discussion considers the significance of the participation of citizens and the political implications of these findings. Currently, participation is predominantly confined within a growth paradigm and reproduces tensions in ecological modernization policies. Participation and protest can inadvertently engage these tensions and question the participatory practices themselves. A moratorium on ‘growth’ might create the necessary space for fundamentally rethinking aviation and sustainability.

Noise measurement and social questionnaire surveys in three residential areas around Mehrabad International Airport (Tehran, Iran) were based upon randomly selected dwellings in each area. A total of 193 individuals responded and many are annoyed and dissatisfied with aircraft noise and in consequence they would like to move. Aircraft noise is the strongest negative environmental factor affecting the residents in the vicinity of Mehrabad Airport and it could be a hazard for their health.

This article deals with the determination of the benefits of environmental assets, involving an application for noise. In determining these benefits the so‐called Cost of Illness Method is applied. An important part of the research is the estimation of the relationship between environmental pollution (noise) and the number of lost workdays. This relationship is estimated by using the Lisrel technique with latent variables. The empirical results show that, for the sample concerned, a relationship between noise and lost workdays does not exist. The research also shows that noise causes annoyance and that annoyance influences people′s wellbeing negatively.

Describes a socio‐psychological study performed in a residential area of Tehran, exposed to both aircraft and traffic noise. Analysis of residents′ responses to road traffic noise shows that although aircraft noise is the chief environmental problem it fails to mask the nuisance of traffic noise.

This study aims to examine activity-related sound levels and pupils’ perceptions of the acoustic environment in two classrooms, one of which was a traditional classroom (Reference classroom, reverberation time (RT) 0.54 s) and the other a refurbished classroom (Demo classroom, RT 0.32 s).

Three types of data were gathered: room acoustic measurements, activity sound levels during different activities and pupils’ subjective experience concerning factors related to acoustics. Pupils, 10–11 years old (N = 34), estimated their subjective experience in general and after four test lessons. Teachers planned the test lessons to have four different lesson types: quiet work, one-person speaking, group work and activity-based work. The sound levels of activities were measured during the test lessons.

The activity sound levels were 2–13 dB L_Aeq lower in the Demo classroom than in the Reference classroom, depending on lesson type. Pupils were less annoyed by noise in the Demo than in the Reference classroom. Pupils’ speech was the most annoying sound source. More pupils were annoyed by it in the Reference classroom (65%) than in the Demo classroom (15%). Hearing the teacher while not seeing her face, concentrating on teaching and sitting in one’s place were estimated easier in the Demo classroom than in the Reference classroom.

This study offers a new approach using test lessons for studying activity sounds in schools. Activity sounds and their annoyance can be significantly diminished by classroom refurbishments.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically map research on the effect of classroom acoustics and noise on high school students’ listening, learning and well-being, as well as identify knowledge gaps to inform future research.

This scoping review followed the PRISMA-ScR protocol. A comprehensive search of four online databases (ERIC, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science) was conducted. Peer-reviewed papers were included if they conducted a study on the effect of classroom acoustics or noise on students’ listening, learning or well-being; had a clear definition of the noise level measurement; were conducted with high school students; and had the full text in English available.

In total, 14 papers met the criteria to be included in the review. The majority of studies assessed the impact of noise on students’ listening, learning or well-being. Overall, the results showed that higher noise levels have a negative effect on students’ listening, learning and well-being. Effects were even more pronounced for students who were non-native speakers or those with special educational needs such as hearing loss. Therefore, it would be beneficial to limit unnecessary noise in the classroom as much as possible through acoustic insulation, acoustic treatment and classroom management strategies.

This paper is the first review paper to synthesize previous research on the effect of classroom acoustics and noise on high school students’ listening, learning and well-being. It provides an analysis of the limitations of existing literature and proposes future research to help fill in these gaps.

Some facilities managers will be in the position of adapting existing space to cope with changing needs, while others will be concerned with drawing up specifications for new spaces. Both need practical advice from the acoustician about how to deal with existing problems of speech and noise in rooms. Many offices facing crises in space planning and in staff management are also faced with difficulties concerning speech acoustics, particularly in the areas of speech intelligibility, speech privacy and noise. Research into these aspects of room acoustics by the present author has resulted in an improved approach to measuring the information characteristics of both speech and noise in rooms. A design index is described for predicting the intelligibility of speech and is illustrated by a typical example of conditions in the open plan office. Advice is also needed on the implications of new speech technologies (speech synthesis and speech recognition) on office layout. These new products have already been in everyday use for over 10 years in some office environments and are becoming more commonplace. It is shown that as the new, speech‐driven equipment is taken up, the problems of containing noise in open‐plan spaces will increase, unless speech acoustics in the office is given a new priority.