The acoustic quality and health in urban environments (SALVE) project: Study design, rationale and methodology

Abstract

Sound pressure levels expressed in variations of decibel (dB) formulations are a common approach to describe the urban acoustic environment (AE) in regard to noise and health exposure. However, as noise descriptors mainly focus on sound pressure level, further concepts are needed to analyze the effects of the AE on human health. In recent years, different approaches to describe the AE have gained traction, like the soundscape ecology approach that focuses on sound in the natural environment. To determine the feasibility of applying this approach to cities, a comprehensive dataset of high-quality sound recordings with high spatial and temporal resolution is essential.The acoustic quality and health in urban environments (SALVE) project aims to establish a spatially and temporally high-resolution dataset of the urban AE to connect it to human health as well as to the built environment. Since 2019, we have assessed the AE at selected places in the densely populated city of Bochum, Germany. For a high temporal resolution, we used automatic devices at 52 locations that recorded every 26 min for three minutes. For a high spatial resolution, we used manual devices to perform a five-minute recording four times a year at 730 selected locations. So far, we sampled 1,500,493 min of sound recordings. Comprehensive health data used were already available from the ongoing epidemiological Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study, in the Ruhr Area, Germany.The aim here is to outline our sampling design, methods used, and applied quality procedures in order to achieve a well-defined and high-quality dataset. To the best of our knowledge, our study provides one of the most extensive datasets currently available. This will allow for the next steps, analyzing in-depth associations between the urban AE, urban fabric and human health.