Psychoacoustic evaluation of soundscapes by means of repeated measurements

Abstract

Research on soundscape explore facets of how acoustic environments affect human perception in context. By means of psychoacoustic parameters the sound character of acoustic environments can be described comprehensively as those parameters play an important role with respect to manifold auditory sensations. Although there seems to be a consensus of the benefit of psychoacoustics for soundscape evaluations and the ISO/TS 12913-2 particularly requests to give consideration to psychoacoustic indicators in soundscape investigations rather little is known about the relationships between psychoacoustic quantities and significant soundscape dimensions. Numerous investigations aimed to establish links between psychoacoustics and soundscape appraisal, but the gained results were often not suited for generalization. Moreover, it is rather unclear how urban locations vary in their sound character over longer periods and how the level of variation drives soundscape assessments. In order to establish an understanding of potential psychoacoustic characterization of urban locations for soundscape evaluations, repeated measurements of different locations are analyzed and the general behavior of psychoacoustic quantities derived. Based on these investigations it is intended to expand knowledge on the usefulness of psychoacoustics from the perspective of the soundscape approach.