Soundscape analysis and acoustical design strategies for an urban village development

Abstract

Overall establishment of an acoustical landscape (soundscape) would be the fundamental source of sonic information that is useful in initiating urban design and planning strategies. A soundscape analysis was conducted in conjunction with an urban transportation and community design project targeting the western section of Gainesville, FL. The community was acoustically characterized and analyzed by means of quantitative measurements and qualitative assessments by observation. The measurements included instantaneous, 1‐min short‐term and 24‐h long‐term measurements. The parameters involved in these measurements are A‐weighted average Lp, Leq, Lmax, Lmin, and LDN. The overall sonic environment of the community as well as the types of sounds that are desirable and noises that are not desireble in the existing and future contexts were identified. The results showed that the community was dominated mostly by traffic noise from several major thoroughfares and by occasional fire alarm noise. Finally, methods or strategies to reduce, buffer, and mitigate the undesirable sounds and to preserve the desirable sounds were suggested. The addition of new characteristics to the soundscape, such as people activity sounds and ‘‘natural’’ sounds, were also proposed. The application of acoustical urban design strategies to the specifically proposed urban transportation design plans was further analyzed.