A comprehensive environmental sound categorization scheme of an urban city

Abstract

The aim of the study is to develop a comprehensive environmental noise and sound categorization scheme of commonly occurring sounds in an urban city where there exists a myriad of different sounds and noise sources. Existing literature had found conventional noise mitigation measures to be ineffective in resolving the increasing noise pollution of urban cities, a growing direction in the research community to address environmental noise management using the soundscape approach has proved to be promising. The soundscape approach considers sounds as ‘resources’ rather than ‘waste’, the present study identified 61 commonly occurring sounds in the outdoor urban environment and developed a comprehensive categorization scheme and alternate categorization schemes for recreational or heavily urbanized spaces which will be useful as a common framework for soundscape researchers and aid in the planning, preservation, or understanding of urban soundscapes.