Land Art Park Significantly Reduces Jet Engine Noise Near Airport

ClockEndGooner writes: A study conducted by the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research found that low frequency and long wavelength jet engine droning noise was significantly reduced in the fall after farmers plowed their fields near Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. The remaining furrows "had multiple ridges to absorb the sound waves, deflected the sound and muted the noise." This led to the development of the Buitenschot Land Art Park, a buffer park featuring "land art" that has significantly reduced aircraft noise without requiring cuts in the number of allowed flights in and out of the airport. The land art park has also provided neighbors with additional recreational paths and sports fields in the same space.

Comments

sourceforge significantly reduces crapware

[Anonymous Coward]

just kidding! For those that don't know (it's news everywhere except slashdot), source forge has been busted for putting up crapware installers of software hosted elsewhere (such as gimp-win). In many cases, it's hosted elsewhere because people were trying to avoid sourceforge's shitty business practices (like, you know, crapware installers).

Re:sourceforge significantly reduces crapware

[YoungManKlaus]

maybe you should submit a story then, instead of writing off-topic comments

Re:sourceforge significantly reduces crapware

[mrchaotica]

Stories about that have been getting submitted over and over again since at least yesterday. Dice (which owns both Sourceforge and Slashdot) is suppressing them.

Re:sourceforge significantly reduces crapware

[SpankiMonki]

Well said. When I get some mod points, I'll be promoting these "off topic" posts. Sourceforge's behavior is reprehensible, and DICE's obvious suppression of the story on /. is just as reprehensible.

Re:sourceforge significantly reduces crapware

[Earthquake Retrofit]

Dice (which owns both Sourceforge and Slashdot) is suppressing them.

No, that was the readers of the firehose like me.

Re:sourceforge significantly reduces crapware

[Coren22]

Here is a link to one of the submissions, it gives links to numerous other "news" site's coverage.

http://slashdot.org/submission...

I however will not speak to the veracity of the claims, as I have not looked into it personally. I also highly doubt that Dice is suppressing coverage of the issue, I expect the articles just aren't being voted onto the front page.

Re:sourceforge significantly reduces crapware

[aardvarkjoe]

Another reason is that it is not news worthy,

An organization that was formerly one of the major hubs of open-source and free software has hijacked the downloads of a major free software project, and is using that to push malware to their users. Do you seriously think that's non-newsworthy, especially to the Slashdot readership? WTF, do you work for Dice too?

or not even true.

Several of the submitted stories have been fairly well-sourced, and I haven't seen anything to suggest that they aren't true.

Re:sourceforge significantly reduces crapware

[fustakrakich]

Isn't this like... old shit? Are people asking for dupes now?

Re:sourceforge significantly reduces crapware

[fustakrakich]

Okay, You all can stop now.. I, for one, don't need to read the same old stories and hear the same old comments over and over. Let's talk about baseball! How 'bout them Cubs?

Re:sourceforge significantly reduces crapware

[mrchaotica]

No, it's not the same story. The story now is about what Sourceforge did after that (i.e., locking the GIMP-for-Windows developer out of his account -- despite the fact that he had not "abandoned" it as Sourceforge claimed -- and distributing the crapware-bundled installer anyway).

What a shocker

[smooth wombat]

Who would have thought having trees, shrubs and other natural barriers between an airport and the people would reduce noise levels?

It's as if clear cutting was found not to work.

Re:What a shocker

[Qzukk]

The real shock here is all that prime real estate has been just thrown away when it could have been used to build houses to sell to suckers who then sue the airport for being loud and ruining their enjoyment of their home.

Re:What a shocker

[Anonymous Coward]

You must not have even read the summary, that's impressive even for Slashdot! the geometry of the landscape is what caused the reduction in noise, not the fields on top of it. Actually, the clear cutting is what resulted in the better sound quality, due to the ridges formed in the ground after the fields were harvested. also, for future reference, while trees and shrubs help, they offer far less acoustical blockage than most people expect. the more you know.

Re:What a shocker

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that a surprise to you? Sound waves hit things and get reflected and absorbed based on their geometry. That is why acoustic baffles have strange shapes.

Re:What a shocker

[Moof123]

So building berms and calling them "land art" is news worthy?

Re:What a shocker

[timrod]

The newsworthy part isn't that they constructed noise-reducing landscape around an airport, but that they did it in a way that is palatable to the general public and reduced noise levels significantly. If you read the article, the point is that the same principle could be applied in the United States to reduce airport noise, as an alternative to having fewer flights, which would impact things like airline ticket prices and flight availability.

The real newsworthy part is that you can get the NIMBY crowd to stop complaining if you dress up things like berms as a public park and "land art" rather than "We're going to build some six-foot-high mounds of dirt to reduce the noise coming from the airport".

Re:What a shocker

[Anonymous Coward]

8 weeks later, noise complains about hoards of dirt bikes on new 10 foot berms!

Re:What a shocker

[bobbied]

So building berms and calling them "land art" is news worthy?

No, but it's Slashdot worthy apparently... News and News for Nerds are not congruent sets.

Re:What a shocker

[Anonymous Coward]

I lived in an apartment near an airport (I could see aircraft landing at constant rate sometimes). It really wasn't that loud. I was on the top floor, but a unit or two from the edge closed to the airport.

Re:What a shocker

[Dutch Gun]

Welcome to my corner of the world, where a number of homeowners are complaining about the noise from a naval base that's been in continuous use since WWII. Of course, all of them signed a disclosure form saying "yes, I know I'm buying a home under the flight path of a military base".

Re:What a shocker

[Dutch Gun]

Near where I live, a freeway cut right through a very expensive neighborhood. The solution? They actually covered the freeway up with a lid for a large stretch to reduce the noise (and put a nice park on top). In other nearby areas, they use a lot of greenery and specially designed concrete embankments with baffles intended to help diffuse the sound. I lived in an apartment near the open but baffled area, and the sound didn't seem too bad (although there's no way to know what the difference would have been without it, of course).

The concept isn't new by any means, but this is a cool new application of it, from what I can see.

Re:What a shocker

[mc6809e]

Who would have thought having trees, shrubs and other natural barriers between an airport and the people would reduce noise levels?

It's as if clear cutting was found not to work.

Who thinks that? People that have never studied noise abatement and think their cleverness is enough to allow them to intuit the science.

Trees and shrubs do very little. A thorough study from the state of Virginia showed

No matter how the sites were examined, there was no measurable difference in road noise. All differences at the more distant measurement locations were due simply to the distance effect rather than to any additional mitigating effects of trees, whether measured by planting density, age, height, or average tree diameter.

Re:What a shocker

[wonkey_monkey]

Who would have thought the story has nothing to do with trees or shrubs? Anyone who read it, for a start...

Re:What a shocker

[tompaulco]

I live about 1 mile from the end of a runway where AWACS are frequently practicing approaches. This means executing an approach, then breaking off, accelerating to full throttle, and executing the missed approach procedure, and going around and doing it again. AWACS are old 707 airframes with noisy engines. I really don't have an issue with the noise. Every once in awhile they will do a radius arc approach which has them about 1,000 feet above my house with full flaps and high engine output. That is noisy, but after a couple of seconds they fly by and everything is peaceful again. I don't really see any reason to get all agitated when the noise level is not really all that bad and the airport has been here for about 75 years. Civilian airports have much quieter aircraft, although they do usually have more operating at a given time. Civilian airports also are frequently subject to noise reduction procedures. I doubt that they see as much noise as those of us living by a military base, and the military base is easily tolerable.

Re:What a shocker

[dj245]

Who would have thought having trees, shrubs and other natural barriers between an airport and the people would reduce noise levels?

It's as if clear cutting was found not to work.

At long last, business is booming!

Re:What a shocker

[Anonymous Coward]

What with my comment history, I seriously doubt they'd let me buy a home directly under the flight path of a military base...

Re:What a shocker

[Anonymous Coward]

they should build neighbours marketed to the deaf community

Re:What a shocker

[arglebargle_xiv]

Cities like Denver, Munich, Tokyo and Belfast have known about this for years. By cleverly putting miles and miles of landscape between the airport and the city, sound levels over the city have been significantly reduced. When it comes to cutting down on noise, nothing beats huge... tracts of land.

Prior Art - Wedge Acoustic Panels

[Irate Engineer]

Wedge foam acoustic panels have been around a long time in sound studios. It's cool that they have rediscovered the idea in dirt and are building the idea into landscape art.

Re:Prior Art - Wedge Acoustic Panels

[SpankiMonki]

Looking to score the next Score:5, Funny

Then stop making Score: 5, Insightful comments!

Re:Prior Art - Wedge Acoustic Panels

[Irate Engineer]

Looking to score the next Score:5, Funny

Then stop making Score: 5, Insightful comments!

Dammit, I knew I was going about it all wrong.

Re:Prior Art - Wedge Acoustic Panels

[dsmatthews9379]

True, except they have done it all wrong and not used a fractal configuration that would have offered a far wider bandwidth.

See http://www.subwoofer-builder.c... and the book "Acoustic Absorbers and Diffusers: Theory, Design and Application" By Trevor J. Cox, Peter D'Antonio

Keep in mind that once you have line of sight to an engine tailpipe nothing is going to stop the sound short of a massive active noise cancelling system, or a vacuum. :-)

Re:Prior Art - Wedge Acoustic Panels

[Will.Woodhull]

To what extent are these "land art" arrays using destructive interference to cancel the low frequency noise? I'm no acoustic engineer, and until this story I never thought about the why's and wherefor's of baffle designs.

Neighbours

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I just need to build a series of six foot high mounds between me and my neighbour.

Re:Neighbours

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget the moat with alligators.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would we want to add the expense of this? Only poor people live near the airport, and they don't matter, and we must pave everything flat to maximize profit anyway.

Wow, the netherlands is TINY.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, the netherlands is TINY.
30 or 40 miles across??!!

Re:Wow, the netherlands is TINY.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, the netherlands is TINY.

That's what SHE said about YOUR netherlands!

Re:Wow, the netherlands is TINY.

[Will.Woodhull]

The nurse said she could not think of any good reason why the new patient had "tiny" tattooed on his penis, and she could not think of any appropriate way to ask the footballer with the sprained ankle about it. The nurse's aide said she would find out, and sauntered down the hallway.

After a time, she came back with a dreamy look and a bit of a smile on her face. "It doesn't say 'tiny'," she said. "It says Ticonderoga New York."

Bee-duh-bump.

Re:Wow, the netherlands is TINY.

[Anonymous Coward]

Geez, this joke is old, and yet you still told it wrong:
The Patient was from the Caribbean.
The Tattoo said "Wendy".
On expansion:
WELCOME TO JAMAICA HAVE A NICE DAY
There are many variations. (And nobody is interested in Ticonderoga...)

The Jamaican Tourist Board made a number of Commercials back in the Seventies, starting with "Welcome To Jamaica", then "Welcome Back To Jamaica", and then, with a hint of desperation, "Come Back To Jamaica". The Seventies were a troubled time in Jamaica.
You'll find them on Youtube.

labels mean nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

Calling something 'art' doesn't make it so.

Re:labels mean nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

Score 5 Insightful!

A Quiet Airport?!?

[Sir_Eptishous]

This kind of
pinko-commie-"feel-good"-new-agey-yoga-euro-"we support diversity"-SJW-enviro-whacko-unAmerican-antiFreedom-"GrEEN"-"compost-lovin"-"prius-Drivin"-Obama-votin-quiche-eatin-Kale-growin Bullshit will never fly in this here YouNitedStates of Merkica!
No seree! We loves em airports loud as F#$K!
We want that noise, that white noise, blasting into our every fiber, shredding any semblance of calm, any remote chance at a quiet backyard bbq without the sound of Jim coming back from his business trip to El Paso.

Re:A Quiet Airport?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

We want that noise, that white noise, blasting into our every fiber, shredding any semblance of calm...

Wait...are you saying that the white noise gadget I bought from SkyMall is useless? It lulls me to sleep. Should I buy a place closer to the airport?

Re:A Quiet Airport?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Can I interest you in a charming house next to the missile test range? its really waiting to be owned for a special kind of people and I think you may fill the profile

Re:A Quiet Airport?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

You heer dat sound? Dat's the sound of freedum!

How about some numbers

[ChrisMaple]

How much is noise reduced, at what frequencies, under what conditions?

Re:How about some numbers

[Anonymous Coward]

RTFA n00b

Re:

[tompaulco]

Why would we want to add the expense of this? Only poor people live near the airport, and they don't matter, and we must pave everything flat to maximize profit anyway.

In some countries poor people live near airports. IN the U.S. upper middle class people buy near the airport and then complain about the noise. Or rich people live on the airport itself, and don't complain about the noise at all, especially since they own a plane.

Jet noise... Quit yer bellyachin'!

[Anonymous Coward]

What's the difference between a Jewish American Princess and a 747?

The jet quits whining after it lands in Miami.