Sound environments and citizen action: what place for a participatory sciences tool? The case of the city of Rezé using NoiseCapture

Abstract

Local authorities are increasingly interested in implementing participatory processes, associating inhabitants in decision-making. The Sonorezé project, involving researchers from the Gustave Eiffel University and the City of Rezé, evaluates the interest of a smartphone application for participatory noise measurement, namely Noisecapture, as a vehicle for this citizen participation in the noise context. The project includes the recruitment of participants, the creation of participatory noise maps integrating different indicators, and the constitution of discussion groups that aim to elaborate concerted proposals regarding noise mitigation. In parallel, one will evaluate how access to this tool modifies the perception that inhabitants have of their soundscape, and facilitates their empowerment and the valorization of their inhabitant knowledge. This communication will present the whole workflow, highlighting how this framework helps to raise awareness of urban noise environments among inhabitants. Then, one will present in detail the dynamics of the recruitment, which amounts to more than 100 participants that performed almost 1000 measurements, at the stage of the first 4 months. The diversity of the participants' profiles, the temporal and spatial heterogeneity in the measurements, are however possibly an obstacle to the production of representative noise maps, which will be discussed in the communication.