Applications - Soundscape Ecology: Principles, Patterns, Methods and Applications - page 278

Number of aircraft noticed during the visit
Experience compared with expectations
Estimate of aircraft threshold level
Reaction to aircraft: positive, negative, or neutral,
Extent of annoyance
Extent to which aircraft have affected total visit enjoyment

Some steps are requested to initiate the procedure for collecting the necessary
information. The first step is to choose the monitoring area, prepare the question-
naire, choose the monitoring periods, select the monitoring days, and select and
brief the survey interviewers.
The effects of aircraft overflights on recreationists are varied. Direct effects are
visual and aural but the latter are more important. For some recreationists the noise
of an aircraft or of an helicopter produces a feeling of security. In the case reported
by these authors, aircraft overflight is a not strong indicator of the quality of a park
but there are other indicators that prevail, such as poor signage or conflict with other
recreationists.
Expectation of aircraft noise reduces the annoyance effect and vice versa. The
origin of the visitors makes the difference. European visitors are more tolerant of
the presence of aircraft than natives.
The “Last Settler Syndrome” affects visitors with a past experience of satisfac-
tion in the same place. When they visit the same site again they can make a
comparison with the past experience, and considering that the aircraft flights are
increasing the feeling is generally negative.
There are also differences between backcountry visitors and forecountry visitors,
in that backcountry visitors are more sensitive to aircraft traffic.
Site location and activity can have a different feeling; for instance, visitors on
track are more annoyed than when they are in the accommodation quarters.
The type of flights is perceived differently: rescues or service flight are highly
tolerated, but scenic flights are considered “unnecessary.”
Visitors disturbed by aircraft flights define this disturbance as annoying,
irritating, intrusive, distracting, or disruptive, although helicopters create interest
in the visitors.
Measuring the aircraft flights is not easy: it is possible to use the aircraft sound
levels, length of time aircraft are audible, frequency of flights, and speed of onset.
The most important effects are created by flight frequency and sound levels. For
some people just the presence of an aircraft represents an impact.
The uniqueness of each wilderness area presents difficulties to refer concerns to
other areas. Visitor crowding may reduce aircraft annoyance. Direct measure of
noise-induced annoyance is a good indicator of the effect of aircraft flights rather
than visit satisfaction or intent to revisit, as shown by the study of Fidell

et al. ( 1996 ).
The increase of tourists in national parks has accompanied the intrusion of
growing noise produced by vehicles such as snowmobiles, and scenic park