Relationship between objective acoustic indices and subjective assessments for the quality of soundscapes

Abstract

Different urban acoustics environments were evaluated using 31 recordings obtained using binaural techniques of recording and reproduction. The relationships of the perception of pleasantness/unpleasantness as described by a sample of 25 inhabitants of these urban environments with two psychoacoustic magnitudes (loudness and sharpness) and two traditional magnitudes (equivalent sound level in dB, Leq, and equivalent sound level in dBA, LAeq) were analyzed. A logistic regression model was considered to study the relationship between the objective acoustic indices mentioned above and the subjective descriptions of the urban soundscapes. A significant correlation between the perception of a soundscape as very unpleasant and the four objective indices considered for its acoustic characterization is found. No correlation was found between the objective indices and the pleasant soundscapes. Leq was the objective index that explained a higher percentage of the variation of the very unpleasant answers. Moreover, Leq was the only index that showed a significant correlation with the mean, maximum and minimum values for the items that respondents assigned to the recordings. Furthermore, it was the one with the highest coefficient of determination.