Radioactive Soundscape Project

Abstract

Acoustic ecology data have been used for various types of soundscape investigations. Counting sounds in the soundscape is considered an effective method in ecology studies and offers comparative data for human-caused impacts on the environment. One particularly valuable dataset of broadcasted recordings from the “difficult-to-return zone (exclusion zone)” area, 10 km from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was collected by Hill H. Kobayashi and H. Kudo in the Oamaru District (Namie, Fukushima, Japan) in 2016. These audio samples, which have not yet been analyzed (a total of over 700 h in MP3 format), were continuously transmitted in a live stream of sound from an unmanned remote sensing station in the area. In 2016, the first part of that collection of audio sample covering the transmitted sound recording from the station was made available on the project website. The data package described here covers the bioacoustics in the area. We expect these recordings to prove useful for studies on topics, which include radioecology and the emerging dialects for future observations.