Social survey on community response to wind turbine noise in Japan

A committee of Research on the Evaluation of Human Impact of Low Frequency Noise from Wind Turbine Generators conducted a series of physical measurements, laboratory psychological experiments and social surveys of wind turbine noise under the auspice of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan. In this paper, a design of questionnaire used in the survey and a part of the results are introduced. The questionnaire is based on the proposal of the Acoustical Society of Japan, which was planned to make the results of social surveys conducted by various researchers comparable. Social surveys were conducted in 36 sites where wind turbine noise is audible and in 16 sites where wind turbine noise is inaudible. The number respondents were 747 and 332, respectively. The results of the survey are introduced from various viewpoints.