Sound and the healthy city

Abstract

At an international level it is recognised that urban noise has serious and negative public health impacts. This leading editorial and the special issue it accompanies seeks to broaden this agenda. An important goal for Cities & Health is to give ear to new urban health topics, methods and collaborations. In doing so this paper presents the topic of urban sound and health from several unique angles. At its core, we deliberately move the focus beyond noise levels, as measured by decibels, and harm to health through the stress of relentless background noise. Instead, we focus on the concept of soundscape, a more qualitatively nuanced research subject of enquiry. The paper serves as an introduction to soundscape and health from several distinct disciplinary positions and lays a good intellectual foundation for the twenty-two papers published in this special issue. We hope that through a soundscape approach we can encourage fresh thinking about urban sound, including how people perceive and relate to their sonic environments, and show how sound can contribute to health. We believe that this approach can provide a collaborative platform for sound artists, sound technologists, urbanists and local people to work together with public health and create healthier urban environments.

Revisiting the Concept of Quietness in the Urban Environment—Towards Ecosystems’ Health and Human Well-Being

“…The planning of quiet and green areas includes other concepts similar to ecological connectivity. The fact that increased intensity levels pose a non-physical barrier [ 83 ] that impedes ecological connectivity should be taken under consideration.…”

“…Recent COVID-19 related restrictions in everyday life have portrayed a different view on this matter [ 82 ]. The profound silence in otherwise noisy or acoustically vibrant cities could possibly be associated with a sense of sensory deprivation, anxiety due to confinement and health implications [ 83 ], but has proven to be beneficial for songbirds that reclaimed favored frequencies [ 76 , 84 ], but also, in some cases, for other wildlife species [ 77 ]. Therefore, the benefits of quietness should be differentiated from the implications caused due to silence.…”

Urban Soundscape Assessment by Visually Impaired People: First Methodological Approach in Granada (Spain)

“…The importance given to preferred urban sounds as a way to improve the quality of life of citizens, or the relevance of certain urban acoustic environments, of high cultural value in their own right, to be preserved and restored if degraded, have changed it all. At present, urban soundscape studies is a research field closely linked to urban sustainable design, resulting in spaces where ambient noise is not the protagonist of the scene because of its magnitude, but as a consequence of the way in which it is perceived, including health-related issues [4][5][6]. The city of Granada, in southern Spain, is not far from this strategic movement of using soundscape evaluations to complement and accompany legal commitments, meaning that urban acoustic climate research, by means of soundwalks, is not a new discipline.…”

Approaching Quietness as an Urban Sustainability Opportunity

“…Therefore, an increasing number of urban planners and designers have turned their attention towards soundscaping [3]. Nevertheless, the lack of ecological knowledge in order to deal with the material and immaterial qualities of the urban environment has created the need for transdisciplinary research collaborations [4] between urban planners and acoustic ecologists.…”