Perception of Noise Annoyance

This thesis intends to: (i) study the inter-relationships among sound characteristics, people's characteristics, and the environment by formulating a multivariate stochastic model to predict noise annoyance; (ii) study the impact of a greenery view or a sea view nearby on the moderation of noise annoyance perception at home; (iii) evaluate the monetary benefits derived from reduced annoyance; (iv) formulate an annoyance model to portray the response to a mixed road traffic noise and human noise situation.;The findings derived from the multivariable stochastic models revealed that acoustical parameters, personal characteristics like age, education attainment, noise sensitivity and health conditions as well as the duration of time spent at homes all influence individuals' noise annoyance perception. The presence of several neighbourhood characteristics such as greenery and sea is able to lower the likelihood of inducing high noise annoyance. A sea view can moderate noise annoyance even though its effect is not as strong as a greenery view. Upon detailed examination, types and amount of greenery settings are shown to have different effects on moderating noise annoyance perception.;On the other hand, the willingness-to-pay (WTP) value for reduced annoyance is found to vary with the household income level and the annoyance rating reported by an individual for the existing dwelling. The WTP per dB reduction per household is found to be increased nonlinearly from HK;Under mixed noises situation, annoyance responses to 'single dominant' noise sources and 'no dominant' noise sources are found to be significantly different even under the same dB(A) level. Road traffic noise is found to be the dominant noise source in case the sound pressure level of the road traffic noise is higher than that of human noise by more than 6 dB(A).;Keywords: Noise annoyance; Ordered logit model; Discrete Choice Model; Nature; Willingness-to-pay; Mixed-noise.