SOUND-SCAPE: A framework for characterising positive urban soundscapes

Abstract

People's assessments of urban soundscapes are dependent upon many factors. For example, perceptions of a soundscape may depend on the activity that the listener is doing and their associated listening state at the time. Temporal variations (daily, weekly, seasonal) can also affect perceptions of the soundscape, as can the type and usage of urban space, architectural characteristics and the cultural and historical setting. The context of listening is also a factor in terms of the cognitions that people bring to the listening situation by way of memories, preferences, attitudes, values and meaning. In order to inform the planning process with regard to assessing and creating positive urban soundscapes, a framework is under development. The framework attempts to bring together all the influencing factors in urban soundscape assessment in a new and novel way, and considers how the identification of sources and the variety and mix of sources interact to produce a soundscape. The framework presented in this paper forms the basis of multi-disciplinary soundscape research in the EPSRC funded "Positive Soundscapes Project", which seeks to develop a rounded view of human perception of soundscapes by combining methods from several disciplines.