CITI-SENSE: methods and tools for empowering citizens to observe acoustic comfort in outdoor public spaces

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to design and deploy tools that apply the concept of citizen observatories and empowering citizens in the assessment of acoustic comfort in public places. The research applies an iterative cycle of design and this article presents the results of a demonstrative experiment carried out in situ using the first products developed. This work was undertaken as part of the CITI-SENSE project. A viable technical and procedural solution was designed and tested in a field demonstration, where 53 people were engaged to provide 137 observations in the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz, using environmental sensors connected to a smartphone. The results have been analyzed and discussed in terms of the product’s attractiveness for engaging citizens in the evaluation of acoustic comfort in urban places, the accuracy of the noise levels measured by the acoustic app service integrated into the smartphone, and its ability to obtain simultaneous acoustic and perception data. The results presented in this article are considered a step forward in the research into developing solutions for assessing acoustic comfort. Limitations of the proposed solution are discussed, as are suggestions for further research.

A power-efficient audio acquisition system for smart city applications

“…A visual dashboard is available to the end-user which displays the collected data on to a map. Another Android application was developed in [19]. This application allows the user to record and visualize the acoustic comfort in an area as well as push the results to a server for analysis from the authors.…”

Special Issue on Environmental noise aspects in EU funded projects

“…Itziar Aspuru, Igone García, Karmele Herranz and Alvaro Santander in "CITI-SENSE: methods and tools for empowering citizens to observe acoustic comfort in outdoor public spaces" [9] designed and deployed tools that apply the concept of citizen observatories and empowering citizens in the assessment of acoustic comfort in public places. Demonstrative experiments carried out in situ are presented as part of the CITI-SENSE project.…”

Citizen observations contributing to flood modelling: opportunities and challenges

“…Finished projects (CITI-SENSE, Citclops, COB-WEB, OMNISCIENTIS and WeSenseIt) have already resulted in valuable contributions to the field (Alfonso et al, 2015;Aspuru et al, 2016;Friedrichs et al, 2014;Higgins et al, 2016;Uhrner et al, 2013). For example, the CITI-SENSE project managed to simultaneously collect perception data and acoustic measurements in an approach that can be used to develop citizen empowerment initiatives in case of noise management (Aspuru et al, 2016), while in COBWEB project processes of quality assurance, data conflation and data fusion were studied and recommendations were made (Friedrichs et al, 2014). The currently running CO projects (Ground Truth 2.0, LANDSENSE, SCENT and GROW Observatory) propose to investigate this concept further.…”