70 Schools Near Suwon Air Force Base Face 'Severe Noise' Issues

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] It has been found that 70 schools near the Suwon Air Force Base in Gyeonggi Province are suffering from noise levels of 75 WECPNL or higher. A WECPNL of 75 is the standard used by civilian aircraft companies for noise compensation.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education announced on the 9th the results of a survey conducted from December last year to June this year targeting 10 schools near the Suwon Air Force 10th Fighter Wing, which experiences the most damage from military aircraft noise.

The survey adopted a method that predicts the extent of noise damage to surrounding schools in the form of contour maps based on noise measurements from the 10 sampled schools.

As a result of the survey, noise levels of 75 WECPNL or higher, which is the compensation standard for civilian aircraft noise damage, were measured at 70 schools near the Suwon military airfield (including the surveyed schools).

Specifically, there were ▲25 schools with noise levels of 75 WECPNL or higher ▲29 schools with 80 WECPNL or higher ▲12 schools with 85 WECPNL or higher ▲4 schools with 90 WECPNL or higher. By school level, there were 35 kindergartens (public and private), 20 elementary schools, 9 middle schools, 5 high schools, and 1 special school.

Accordingly, the Gyeonggi Office of Education plans to designate these 70 schools as noise-affected schools and prepare support measures such as installing soundproof windows and heating and cooling facilities.

They also plan to expand surveys and support for schools affected by military aircraft noise throughout the province.

Lee Seung-ho, head of the Educational Environment Improvement Division at the Gyeonggi Office of Education, stated, "Since there is currently no legal standard for compensation for military aircraft noise damage, we are preparing support measures for affected schools based on the civilian aircraft noise damage standards. In the future, we will propose to the Ministry of National Defense and related agencies that schools be included within the scope of compensation for military aircraft noise damage to protect the learning rights of students at affected schools and establish effective support measures."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.