Noise produced by construction activities has become the second most serious acoustic polluting element in China. To provide industry practitioners with a better understanding of the health risks of construction noise and to aid in creating environmentally friendly construction plans during early construction stages, we developed a quantitative model to assess the health impairment risks (HIA) associated with construction noise for individuals living adjacent to construction sites. This model classifies noise-induced health impairments into four categories: cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, sleep disturbance, and annoyance, and uses disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) as an indicator of damage. Furthermore, the value of a statistical life (VSL) is used to transform DALYs into a monetary value based on the affected demographic characteristics, thereby offering policy makers a reliable theoretical foundation for establishing reasonable standards to compensate residents suffering from construction noise. A practical earthwork project in Beijing is used as a case study to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model. The results indicate that construction noise could bring significant health risks to the neighboring resident community, with an estimated 34.51 DALYs of health damage and 20.47 million yuan in social costs. In particular, people aged 45–54 are most vulnerable to construction noise, with the greatest health risks being caused by sleep disturbance.

Construction noise control (CNC) is the process of identifying potential noise emissions and establishing noise-abatement plans to mitigate pollution impacts, a process that requires interdisciplinary knowledge and project-specific information. This study introduces an ontological approach to structure all known information on noise control with regard to construction operations, aiming to improve access to knowledge relating to CNC planning. More importantly, information that can be used to analyze the potential influences of noise-abatement measures in terms of costs, schedules, and technical rules is also considered in order to facilitate integrated decision making by outlining various outcomes for each alternative. Literature and expert reviews were conducted to identify the critical concepts and interrelationships between the method statement and the noise-control plan. Consequently, an ontology-based semantic model for CNC planning is presented as a modeling framework, which could be further enriched with more operational knowledge considering the specific purpose of an individual CNC plan. The prototype is applied to excavation construction to illustrate how CNC knowledge can be stored and reused through ontological and semantic web techniques.