Yearlong wind farm noise data collection: Community involvement in planning and implementation

This presentation outlines the early stages of a yearlong, community-based study investigating wind farm noise in residential areas near commercial wind farms in upstate New York. The study focuses on two communities: one located near two operational wind farms, and another with two operational wind farms with a third in development. Local resident advocates have played a key role in supporting the project by helping to recruit both study participants and community members to serve as data collectors. This grassroots involvement is central to the study’s approach, ensuring that data collection is community-driven and responsive to local concerns. The presentation will describe the motivations behind the research, including the need for residents to be involved in long-term, localized acoustic monitoring in areas affected by wind energy development. It will also address the criteria used to select the participating communities and the recruitment of participants through partnerships with local advocates. The development of standardized protocols for training community data collectors will be discussed, along with preliminary findings from the first months of data collection. Overall, this community-led study aims to empower residents living near wind farms to contribute to the data collection necessary for environmental health research in their communities affected by wind farm noise.