Noise Contours

Estimating the impact of aircraft noise is complex as there is a need to consider both the number of aircraft noise events and the loudness of each, which can vary widely between different aircraft types.

For many years the most common way to estimate noise impact has been to use noise contours. A noise contour is a line of equal noise, so the average aircraft noise at all points on the line will be the same. The use of noise contours to describe noise ‘footprints’ has been very helpful to assess and visualise the extent of noise impacts and the likelihood that they will lead to community intrusion. This does not suggest that everyone will react in the same way to aircraft noise but in principle, areas within higher noise contours will experience higher noise levels and the impact is likely to be greater.

At East Midlands Airport, we produce annual noise contours to comply with our S106 planning obligations and every 5 years are part of the Noise Action plan mapping cycle.

View the noise contours on our reporting and resources page.