The development of emotional indicators for the soundscape in urban open public spaces

Abstract

Increasing urbanization has had a profound impact on the acoustic environment. Research on soundscapes in urban open spaces depends on users’ perceptions and feelings. By exploiting the semantic differential method, this study aims to investigate the emotions that constitute the perceptions and feelings of soundscapes in urban open public spaces. This research was carried out through a laboratory audio–visual experiment using photographs and binaural recordings of 16 urban open public locations across Harbin, China. A total of 48 participants were required to assess both the ‘perceived emotion’ and ‘felt emotion’ of the soundscape by questionnaire. A semantic differential analysis of the results shows that although the soundscapes in urban open spaces are rather complicated, it is still possible to identify five major factors of felt emotion and seven major factors of perceived emotion. Distinguishing between “felt emotion” from “perceived emotion” in soundscapes may bring about changes in evaluation and design, which will help planners better understand how to design a place to provide its users with their expected experience.