Assessment of military shooting noise

The assessment of the impact of noise exposure on the population is a fundamental step in noise abatement. It includes the establishing of an exposure-response relationship and the setting of an impact threshold that specifies the protection level for the population and triggers eventually mitigating measures to reduce noise exposure. In Switzerland, the impact thresholds should be set so that, in the light of current scientific knowledge and experience, noise exposure below these thresholds will not seriously disturb the well-being of the population. For most current noise sources such as roads, railways and airports there already exist impact thresholds as part of the noise abatement legislation. Yet, no impact thresholds for military shooting grounds have been specified so far. Therefore a study was carried out in order to assess the impact of military noise exposure. The research included the calculation of noise exposure of eight military shooting grounds ranging from small infantry shooting ranges to expanded artillery and tank training facilities and a survey at over 1000 residents in the neighbourhood of these installations. Preliminary results suggest that although the responses of the population to military noise are rather dispersed, data should be sufficiently consistent to establish an exposure-response relationship.