Applications - Soundscape Ecology: Principles, Patterns, Methods and Applications - page 268

Noise effect management is important for wildlife species in protected areas
(Cessford 2000 ), but noise per se becomes a complex and intricate issue that crosses
several areas in nature conservation, social and economic development, and local
development expectations. Natural quiet for visitor enjoyment is an important focus
that does not diverge from wildlife conservation.
Parks have important tangible components: geological features, water, animals,
plants, historical buildings, archeological and religious sites. A park has also
intangible qualities: scenery, space, solitude, clear days and night skies, sound of
nature, and natural quiet.
Natural quiet does not mean simply silence: it may represent the sound of nature
without human technical sounds. Natural quiet is becoming more and more impor-
tant because the cacophony of the modern life is growing: 90 % of park visitors
consider the natural quiet an important source of well-being.
Noise can impact on visitor enjoyment and can represent an important source of
negative rating.
The evaluation of visitor enjoyment is a complex process. For instance,
mountaineers have a more precise idea of the sounds either in positive or in
negative directions, quite different from roadside campers. Mountaineers rate
with a high score the sounds from nature and feel annoyance for technologically
borne sounds. In conclusion although the noise is the same, the valuation differs
with the subjects, and people along a valley-floor trail are less annoyed by aircraft
flights than those that are walking along rugged trails to high valley-wall
viewpoints.
Safety concern represents another important component of subjective assess-
ment of natural space. For some people the noise produced by a vehicle may
represent a possible risk of crash but for others this sound can create a sense of
reassurance in a “too wild” region. It is the same for the presence of the mobile
phone, which represents a guaranty for a potential rescue but for others is an
intolerable intrusion in the wild.
Noise impact in natural areas creates complex problems for managers, and better
knowledge of noise sources can be extremely useful to reduce conflicts in manage-
ment decisions.
Four possible categories of noises have been defined by Cessford ( 2000 )in
relationship to protected areas: external nonrecreational noise intrusions, external
recreational noise intrusions, onsite interactivity noise intrusion, and onsite
intraactivity noise intrusions.
10.6.1 External Nonrecreational Noise Intrusions
The sources of these noises, such as the low-altitude training of military aircraft, are
outside the control of park managers. Commercial aircraft use routes that are
established by other authorities, and in addition to the noise of their engines these
flights produce distinctive stripes on the sky, reducing dramatically the sense of the