Sound preferences of the dense urban environment: Soundscape of Cairo

Ismail, Mostafa Refat

doi:10.1016/j.foar.2013.10.002

Cited by 28 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…[11]. In that line, the notion of perceived pleasantness proved particularly relevant to assess the quality of sound environments, and thus receives increasing attention [2], [13]- [15]. Consequently, recent models aimed to predict the pleasantness of the sound environment based on perceptual parameters typically account for the time of presence of sound sources [8], [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Soundscape Pleasantness Using perceptual Assessments and Acoustic Measurements Along Paths in Urban Context

Aumond¹,

Can²,

Coensel³

et al. 2017

Acta Acustica united with Acustica

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Mapping the pleasantness of an urban environment is an alternative approach, closer to the city dweller's perception, than standardized sound levels cartography. This study reports on modeling pleasantness in urban context using perceptual assessments and sound measurements for specific locations during an urban walk. These assessments have been collected from four groups of approximately ten participants on 19 different assessment locations, along a 2,1 km-long path traveled in both directions. Simultaneously, ⅓ octave band sound levels and audio were recorded. Perceptual and physical models of pleasantness are proposed for specific locations based on multiple linear regressions. A multilevel analysis was performed, and it is shown that a perceptual model that includes perceived loudness joined to the perceived time of presence of traffic, voices and birds explains 90% of the pleasantness variance due to the sound environment variations. Physical models that include the original acoustic indicators that are most correlated with perceptual variables explain 85% of this variance. Thanks to these models, a unique averaged pleasantness value is defined for each assessment location from the perceptual or physical collected assessments. The Pearson's correlation coefficient between the averaged perceived pleasantness and the modeled values from perceptual assessment reaches r(19)=0.98, and r(19)=0.97, with the modeled values from physical measurements. These results make it possible to consider the use of this kind of models in a cartographic context. As the path was traveled in both directions, the presentation-order effect has also been assessed, and it has been found that path direction did not have a significant impact on the pleasantness assessment at specific locations, except when very strong sound environment changes occurred. Finally, the study gives some insights about the retrospective global pleasantness assessment for urban walks. For very short walks between two assessment locations, a recency effect is shown. Nevertheless, this effect doesn't seem to be significant when longer routes are assessed.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Soundscape Pleasantness Using perceptual Assessments and Acoustic Measurements Along Paths in Urban Context

Aumond¹,

Can²,

Coensel³

et al. 2017

Acta Acustica united with Acustica

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…One of the early concerns of the field was noise, particularly people's adverse reactions to it within urban contexts and how to conceive "better" soundscape experiences. In the past twenty-five years since the reprinting of Schafer's original soundscape work [6], the language and concepts that undergird many soundscape studies have been bound by ideas of human preference (see References [32][33][34][35][36][37][38]). For example, research approached the study of noise with an implicit connection between quiet conditions and feelings of pleasantness [23].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Soundwalks structured with historic context in mind, like the case study presented here, may prove vital for studying historic soundscapes and how people conceive of history embodied by sound; but they also hold potential as a mechanism of education for the Memorial and other historic places as well. This overlap suggests a partial answer to the challenge of expanding the impact of soundscape study into other fields [32,33,40,41]. But in order to be a viable tool in both soundscape research and heritage applications, the composition of the survey and/or soundwalk must be tuned specifically to the site, its history and current intent.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historic Approaches to Sonic Encounter at the Berlin Wall Memorial

Jordan

2019

Acoustics

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Investigations of historic soundscapes must analyze and place results within a complex framework of contemporary and past contexts. However, the conscious use and presentation of historic built environments are factors that require more deliberate attention in historic soundscape analysis. The following paper presents a multimodal research methodology and promising preliminary results from a study at the Berlin Wall Memorial in Berlin, Germany. Here, the historic context from the Wall's recent past is presented within the surroundings of the contemporary unified capital city. The study approached the past soundscape and present site by combining historic and current-conditions research, linking archival research, conditions assessments via binaural recording and psychoacoustics analysis tools, and soundscape surveys rooted in standardized soundscape research practices. In so doing, archival textual and pictorial sources provided a rich source of primary information integrated within the study and are suggested as a resource for similar inquiries elsewhere. The investigation identified concerns specific to heritage sites that require critical consideration for historic soundscape research of the recent past-survey-participant composition and the problematized use of typical descriptors in soundscape surveys are the two concerns that are discussed. Some standardized soundscape terminology and research methodologies were found to be insufficient in historic contexts. Initial qualitative results from the research are presented as a proof of concept for the research approach with signposts for future analysis and developments.

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“…Generally speaking, non-artificially generated sounds, especially natural elements were usually considered as pleasant and have positive effect on the overall soundscape. [46] Kang has suggested music and water sound can improve acoustic comfort as a pleasant sound source. [11] Jeon et al has also showed the effect of water sound on masking traffic noise, which also could improve the overall soundscape evaluation [41].…”

Section: Correlation Between Dsc Indicators and Perceptual Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Indicators for the Soundscape in Urban Shopping Streets

Yu¹,

Kang²,

Ma³

2016

Acta Acustica united with Acustica

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This paper aims to find a series of objective indicators that can fully describe the soundscapes of urban shopping streets. The perceptual and physical features of soundscapes in urban shopping streets have been investigated via field surveys and a laboratory study. Using the semantic differential method, the perception structure of shopping street soundscapes was initially analysed, and five major perceptual factors were identified that explained 64% of the total sample variance, including preference, loudness, communication, playfulness and richness. Each perceptual factor explained approximately 10% to 15% of the total variance, which showed that they shared very similar importance in the representation of the overall soundscapes in urban shopping streets. Based on this semantic differential analysis, a laboratory study was performed to investigate the relationship between perceptual factors and physical indicators. Sound levels and psychoacoustic indicators were initially considered to be the most common indicators. The results showed that there were significant correlations between these indicators and three perceptual factors, including preference, loudness and communication. A new indicator (dynamic spectrum centre or DSC) was then developed in this study based on the concepts of spectrum gravity centre analysis and temporal variety analysis. This indicator combined spectral and temporal analysis to describe the contents of background sounds and sound events. The DSC indicator was found to have a significant correlation with the other two perceptual factors (playfulness and richness). Increasing the variability of the sound event (a higher standard deviation of DSC_E) could make soundscape more playful and richer.Yu et al: Acta Acustica united with Acustica

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Sound preferences of the dense urban environment: Soundscape of Cairo

Cited by 28 publications

References 14 publications

Modeling Soundscape Pleasantness Using perceptual Assessments and Acoustic Measurements Along Paths in Urban Context

Modeling Soundscape Pleasantness Using perceptual Assessments and Acoustic Measurements Along Paths in Urban Context

Historic Approaches to Sonic Encounter at the Berlin Wall Memorial

Development of Indicators for the Soundscape in Urban Shopping Streets

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