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Bark counter: Seeking objectivity in bark nuisance assessment

At the Adelaide (04) Urban Animal Management conference, in a paper on general concepts of noise assessment and noise management, the subjects of barking noise and barking noise standards were examined. The conclusion of that paper was that barking noise nuisance is different to other kinds of noise nuisance and the current noise standards are not particularly useful for the management of barking noise complaints. It was suggested that Local Authorities could be greatly assisted if they had a specifically engineered barking noise standard to work from in assessing the validity of barking noise complaints. This paper (for the Canberra 05 UAM conference) introduces a newly proven bark counter device that could provide the means necessary for objectively measuring this kind of noise and thereby allowing the development of just such a standard.

NOTE: Neither the authors, the UAM RG, the AVA, nor the conference organisers have any financial interest in this device whatsoever.