This report discusses applications of noise indicators Gden and Gnight for monitoring and restricting noise exposure near airports. Gden and Gnight are single number indicators that express the joint noise exposure of a population during the day and night, respectively. The relation between Gden and Gnight with other indicators such as annoyance, sleep disturbance and social losses due to noise was looked into. It appears that Gden and Gnight show good correlation with annoyance, sleep disturbance and social losses due to noise. Accurate predictions, however, of the latter based on Gden and Gnight that fully coincide with accepted dose-response relation are not possible.
Yearly variations of the groep exposure levels Gden and Gnight, at constant flight numbers are relatively small. This indicates a relatively low sensitivity for altering meteorological conditions and offers opportunities for application of group noise exposure levels in monitoring programs and transparent noise legislation. Because of this outlook, it is recommended that these new indicators be included in the two-year pilot project Vliegen volgens afspraak that has been launched recently.
