Soundscape research in wind farms: A state-of-art review

As energy and environmental issues continue to increase, wind power is being promoted worldwide as a sustainable energy source. As more wind farms are designed and put into operation, the impact of wind power on individuals is beginning to become a matter of concern, especially in terms of acoustics. Thus, research into the soundscape of wind farms and wind turbines has recently begun to develop. This article presents a review of wind power soundscape research. The main objective of this review is to investigate the current scope of soundscape research in the field of wind turbines. Hopefully, more attention will be given to the soundscape of wind power environments, which in turn will contribute to the design and management of wind power environments and surrounding habitats. The criteria for the selection of articles were as follows: first, the studies were in line with the theme of wind farm acoustics research; second, the authors conducted laboratory experiments or community survey and recorded relevant subjective evaluation data. Some of the studies, although fitting the theme of soundscape research, focused mainly on ‘noise' and did not mention ‘soundscape'. Thus, two separate strings were used in the search process through the Scopus database and Web of science database, one of which used ‘noise'/ ‘sound' and ‘perception'/ ‘annoyance' instead of ‘soundscape'. Of the 826 results obtained, 31 studies were selected based on article content and selection criteria. By reviewing these articles, this review found that current research related to the soundscape study of wind farms is still lacking, with more researchers focussing on wind power noise and its effects on the physical and psychological health of residents rather than on the influence of the integrated acoustic environment and context of wind farms on residents' perception. The questionnaire is the most commonly used method for collecting subjective acoustic perceptions in existing research. A-weighted SPL and L_denare widely used to describe the loudness of wind power noise, but no studies have yet identified the acoustic indicators that have the most significant impact on subjective emotional perceptions. Meanwhile, according to existing literature, objective factors of the environment, such as the topography of the wind farm, weather and time of day, influence human acoustic perception through vision and hearing to some degree. Moreover, based on the current status and major research methods, this review proposed suggestions in terms of participant selection and data collection methods and emphasised the importance of laboratory experiments and the development of wind power acoustics research on a global scale.