Noise pollution

Engineering

Loudness

Biology

Annoyance

Drone

Biochemistry

Sound (geography)

Computer science

Acoustics

Systematic review

Traffic noise

Genetics

Environmental noise

Physics

Image (mathematics)

Environmental science

Artificial intelligence

Noise measurement

MEDLINE

Noise reduction

Noise (video)

Aeronautics

Computer vision

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

The number of operations of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), commonly referred to as “drones”, has strongly increased in the past and is likely to further grow in the future. Therefore, drones are becoming a growing new source of environmental noise pollution, and annoyance reactions to drone noise are likely to occur in an increasing share of the population. To date, research on drone noise emission characteristics, and in particular also on health impacts, seems scarce, but systematic overviews on these topics are missing. The objective of this study was to establish a systematic literature review on drone noise emissions and noise effects on humans. The paper presents the methodology of the systematic reviews performed separately for noise emission and noise effects, assembles current literature, gives an overview on the state of knowledge, and identifies research gaps. Current literature suggests that drone noise is substantially more annoying than road traffic or aircraft noise due to special acoustic characteristics such as pure tones and high-frequency broadband noise. A range of open questions remains to be tackled by future studies.

Drone Noise Emission Characteristics and Noise Effects on Humans—A Systematic Review