Community response from noise emissions from London heliport operation

The noise emissions from the operation of heliports situated in cities can have significant adverse impacts on a large number of local residents. Despite its significance this topic is under studied. This paper presents the subjective part of a novel study on the noise emissions and associated im-pact from the London (UK) heliport operation. The heliport is situated in a densely populated area with the nearest residency located at 150m from the heliport boundary. The complete study was designed to obtain relevant objective and subjective data during the summer months. An extensive community response survey was implemented during the same period of the noise monitoring ex-ercise in the form of an online questionnaire to obtain perceptions and attitudes from residents of the three boroughs surrounding the heliport. Subjective survey results were analysed to quantify and qualify the extent of the noise effects on residents. These results were also contrasted against the objective results and other relevant social surveys found in the literature. A high participation rate was obtained and results showed that noise emissions from the heliport operation cause ad-verse impact on quality or life and well-being of a large majority of respondents. The level of an-noyance reported by respondents appeared higher than the level of annoyance attributed to noise measurements at monitoring sites reported in the objective survey. Results from the objective part of the study are presented in a separate paper elsewhere.