Soundwalking with children for a quieter and healthier city

Abstract

ABSTRACTRoad traffic noise constitutes the second most harmful environmental stressor in Europe, affecting over 125 million people every year. Excessive exposure to noise can cause cardiovascular disease, sleep disturbance and cognitive impairment, especially for children. Notwithstanding that children are rarely included in environmental noise evaluation. Noise mitigation measures mainly address noise sources, overlooking people’s perception. The same applies for the identification and protection of quiet areas; an effective noise reduction measure recommended by the Environmental Noise Directive. Although the European Environment Agency recommended the adoption of methods addressing human perception, i.e. the soundscape approach, how children can be included in quiet areas identification remains rather understudied at the European policy level. This contribution addresses this issue, illustrating the case of a soundwalk conducted with children in Berlin for the 2017 International Noise Awareness Day within the context of the ‘Beyond the Noise: Open Source soundscapes’ project. Firstly, the project’s rationale is outlined, then the soundwalk procedure is detailed and the findings presented. In conclusion, it is argued that building healthier and quieter cities can be possible if we educate children on the importance to our health of living in good sonic environments, and if we include them in soundscape evaluation.