Audio-visual perception of new wind parks

Previous studies have reported negative impacts of wind parks on the public. These studies considered the noise levels or visual levels separately but not audio-visual interactive factors. This study investigated the audio-visual impact of a new wind park using virtual technology that combined audio and visual features of the environment. Participants were immersed through Google Cardboard in an actual landscape without wind parks (ante operam) and in the same landscape with wind parks (post operam). During the virtual exposure, the reactions of the participants to visual and noise impacts of the wind park were assessed using affective, cognitive, and subjective measures. Participants exhibited significant increases in aural annoyance post operam relative to ante operam. The same result was found in levels of visual annoyance. Aural annoyance and visual annoyance were significantly correlated. However, no direct effects of wind turbines on affective and cognitive measures were found, suggesting wind parks may not have obviously effects on people's objective disturbance. The perceived annoyance was associated with people's attitudes toward the wind parks, but not the sounds of the wind parks. These findings further our understanding of the objective and subjective effects of wind parks on human performance, and allow designers to make scientific decisions during the initial stage of a wind park planning.