Spatial representation of soundscape

Abstract

For the last 30 years the concept of soundscape has been largely adopted in many scientific disciplines and by the urban experts for the benefit of a better comprehension and management of the sound environment. However, the spatial representation of the soundscape as a simple tool for the description, management or composition of sound environment is always needed. In this article a method is presented for the spatial sound representation with differentiated sources. The first results are shown. This method gives an account of the soundscape as close as possible to the way it can be perceived by the listener in each location. This method generates qualitative sound maps in a reduced urban scale, based on in situ measurements and on the implication of the measuring subject perception. The maps are sufficient enough to isolate many sound sources of the overall sound field. In this manner, sound quality refers to the sound attribute of a perceived object. It is neither an aesthetic judgment nor traditional psychoacoustics criteria. Concrete examples of application to squares in the city of Lisbon will be shown and discussed. The limits and the prospects of such a qualitative representation will also be presented and discussed.