Au, Wai Hong. / Thesis submitted in: December 2006. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-103). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; appendix in Chinese. / LIST OF TABLE --- p.I / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.II / LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS --- p.IV / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- 1 INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Research Background --- p.1 / Chapter 1.3 --- Objectives of The Study --- p.5 / Chapter 1.4 --- The Rail Project of This Study --- p.5 / Chapter 1.5 --- Significance of The Study --- p.9 / Chapter 1.6 --- Outline of Thesis --- p.10 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1. --- Introduction --- p.11 / Chapter 2.2. --- Human Response in a Steady Traffic Noise Environment --- p.12 / Chapter 2.3. --- Human Response in an Environment with Sudden Change of Traffic Noise --- p.13 / Chapter 2.4. --- Differential Human Response to Road and Rail Noise --- p.15 / Chapter 2.5. --- Factors Affecting Human Response --- p.16 / Chapter 2.6. --- Path Analysis and Human Response to Traffic Noise --- p.18 / Chapter 2.7. --- Conclusion --- p.20 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE --- METHODOLOGY --- p.21 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.21 / Chapter 3.2 --- Research Design --- p.22 / Chapter 3.3 --- Assessing the Acoustic Impacts of Railway Development --- p.23 / Chapter 3.4 --- Assessing the Acoustic Impacts of MOSR --- p.28 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Noise mapping --- p.28 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- On-site noise measurement --- p.32 / Chapter 3.5 --- Assessing the Changes in Human Response --- p.35 / Chapter 3.5.1 --- Questionnaire design --- p.36 / Chapter 3.5.2 --- Time Schedule of the questionnaire survey --- p.37 / Chapter 3.5.3 --- Statistical analysis --- p.38 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR --- ACOUSTIC IMPACTS OF THE MA ON SHAN RAIL --- p.41 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.41 / Chapter 4.2 --- Traffic Changes Over Time After the Operation ofMOSR --- p.41 / Chapter 4.3 --- "Acoustic Environment Before, Right After and 1 Year After MOSR Opening" --- p.43 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Acoustic environment before MOSR opening --- p.44 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Acoustic environment right after MOSR opening --- p.45 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Acoustic environment 1 year after MOSR opening --- p.50 / Chapter 4.4 --- Conclusion --- p.54 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE --- HUMAN RESPONSE TO THE CHANGING ACOUSTIC ENVIRONMENT --- p.57 / Chapter 5.1 --- Changes of Annoyance Levels in an Environment with Increase of Noise Exposure Level --- p.58 / Chapter 5.2 --- Relationship Between Noise Controlling Factors and Annoyance by Correlation Analysis --- p.59 / Chapter 5.3 --- Unraveling the Relationship between Noise Controlling Factors and Annoyance by Regression Analysis --- p.66 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Relationship between Acoustic Factors and Human Annoyance Reactions --- p.68 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Relationship between non-acoustic factor in affecting human annoyance reactions --- p.70 / Chapter 5.4 --- Exploring the Causal Relationship between Annoyance and Its Controlling Factors by Path Analysis --- p.74 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- Formation of path model --- p.75 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- Casual relationship between annoyance and various controlling factors --- p.79 / Chapter 5.5 --- Conclusions --- p.85 / Chapter CHAPTER SIX --- CONCLUSION --- p.88 / Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.88 / Chapter 6.2 --- Summary of Findings --- p.89 / Chapter 6.3 --- Discussion of Findings --- p.92 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Scientific understanding of noise-annoyance relationships --- p.92 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- Environmental management --- p.94 / Chapter 6.4 --- Limitations and Future Studies --- p.95 / REFERENCE LIST --- p.96 / APPENDIX --- p.104