Soundscape Preference Research Articles

Urban soundscape preferences in relation to the function of a place: Case studies in Warsaw

Abstract The survey interviewed three hundred and nine people in five public places within Warsaw. The aim of the survey was to examine if people’s sound preferences are related to a place’s function and how these preferences differentiate. A further aim of this research was to gather users’ ideas for making city soundscapes more pleasant. The results showed that people generally prefer natural and human sounds, but do not like mechanical sounds; the importance of specific sounds are differentiated in relation to the function and history of a place. The main way to make urban places sound better and more appropriate to their function is to eliminate or reduce mechanical sounds (especially traffic), but individual methods depend on local conditions. The second way to make places sound better is to increase natural sounds and to make soundscapes more appropriate to their function – an increase in human sounds (mainly music).

Assessing soundscape preferences and the impact of specific sounds on outdoor recreation activities using qualitative data analysis and immersive virtual environment technology

Soundscape ecology is an interdisciplinary field focused, in part, on understanding the relationship between humans and sounds from biological, geophysical, and anthropogenic sources. In this study, we utilized immersive virtual environment technology to identify individuals’ soundscape preferences in parks and protected areas, their emotional perceptions towards these sounds, and the recreational activities they believe would be most impacted by these sounds. Findings from the study were congruent with previous research: There is a clear preference for biophony and geophony and an aversion to anthropophony. Participants also provided insight about the types of activities they found most conducive with individual sounds and soundscapes. We suggest that park and protected area managers take management actions that preserve biophonic and geophonic sounds to improve visitor experiences. We also suggest they educate visitors about the types of sounds they are likely to hear at a specific recreation setting so that visitors experiences are not negatively affected by unmet expectations. Management implicationsPark managers may be able to use the findings presented in this study to:●Mitigate the negative impacts that anthropogenic sounds are likely to have on visitors’ experiences.●Communicate with visitors about the various types of sounds present at recreation settings so visitors have more accurate expectations about possible recreation experiences.●Include information on soundscapes and their impact on recreation experiences in educational materials, allowing visitors to make more informed decisions prior to their visits.

Factors associated with soundscape experiences in urban green spaces: A case study in Rostock, Germany

Urban green spaces could play a more prominent role than other types of urban open space in providing high quality soundscapes. The main objective of this study was to examine the relationships between people’s visit motivation, along with other social/demographical/behavioral as well as visual landscape factors and soundscape experiences in terms of the perceived occurrences and loudness of individual sounds, the preference for individual sounds, as well as overall soundscape preference in urban green spaces. This was based on a questionnaire survey of 400 users in four urban green spaces in Rostock, Germany. The results showed that street traffic sounds were the least preferred, but in a dominating position either in perceived occurrences or loudness, while bird song and water sound were the most preferred sounds. Among the social/demographical/behavioral factors length of stay was the most associated one with soundscape experiences, especially the perception of street traffic sound and bird song. All the five visit motivations were positively related to overall soundscape preference, with “Enjoy a quiet environment” showing the highest correlation coefficient (0.323). “Enjoy the scenery or atmosphere” showed the most significant relationships with perception of individual sounds, with totally 10 different perception parameters. The perception of street traffic sound, motorcycle noise, bird song and water sounds were more associated with visual landscape preference than other kinds of sound. Besides, overall soundscape preference could be affected by visual landscape preference indirectly through the perceived occurrences and loudness of certain sounds. The results suggested that sound sensibility indicated by perceived occurrences of individual sounds was more associated with the examined factors. These findings could be instructive in the soundscape and landscape planning and designing process of urban green spaces.

Birding by Ear: A Study of Recreational Specialization and Soundscape Preference

Soundscapes have become recognized as an important natural resource. The traditional human-made versus natural soundscape comparison currently used in recreational resource management is challenged by borrowing soundscape components (i.e., biophony, anthrophony, geophony) from soundscape ecology. This article evaluated the soundscape preference of birders. A three-component model of recreational specialization was used to evaluate how recreationists differ in their preference for soundscape components. Data from in-person surveys collected at The Audubon Center and Sanctuary at Francis Beidler Forest in Harleyville, South Carolina were used in combination with surveys from online birding list servers to obtain a sample of 415 individuals with varying levels of specialization. The findings suggest soundscape preference exists as biophony, geophony, and anthrophony and that more specialized birders found geophony to be significantly more annoying than less specialized birders. Additionally, the skill and knowledge component of specialization best explained the difference in geophony preference among birders.

Sound preferences of the dense urban environment: Soundscape of Cairo

A questionnaire study was conducted to investigate the soundscape preferences of the sonic environment in Cairo. Participants, who were Cairo residents, were questioned about their appraisal of familiar urban soundscapes in a close- and open-ended format questionnaire.Psycholinguistic data analysis of verbal descriptions expressed by respondents was conducted to identify the relevance of semantic categories of environmental sounds and quantitative soundscape aspects for the urban sonic environment of Cairo. Results confirmed a direct relevance of the linguistic semantic auditory judgment and of the outputs of the quantitative close-ended questions. Cairenes were also found to express their sonic environment linguistically based on physical properties rather than semantic features and values.Analyzing the relative annoyance increase (RAI) of the close-ended part, overall positive RAI values for all sound categories reveal how sensitive to noise Cairo residents are. Results further showed that at an RAI value of approximately 27%, sound category perception transforms from positive to negative.

Landscape effects on soundscape experience in city parks

The main objective of this study was to analyse the effects of various landscape factors on soundscape perception in city parks. This was based on the experience, which was supposed to reflect soundscape perception, of 580 users of five city parks in Xiamen, China. Visual and functional landscape characteristics were analysed in relation to experienced occurrence of and preference for individual sounds, as well as overall soundscape preference. The results suggest that landscape factors have more significant effects on experienced occurrence of individual sounds than preference for individual sounds. However, landscape effects on overall soundscape preference depend more on preferences for individual sounds. The effects of visual landscape on the perception of individual sounds could be more important in natural sounds than in artificial sounds, and more in experienced occurrence of than preference for individual sounds; for functional landscape the effects are reversed. In general, visual landscape effects on the perception of individual sounds are more significant than functional landscape effects, especially on experienced occurrence of individual sounds. Taking all factors into account, only the two landscape factors are highly correlated with the overall soundscape preference, with coefficient values of 0.325 and 0.204, respectively. Overall, the results reveal the close relationship between landscape and soundscape experience in real contexts, and that visual and functional aspects should be considered in terms of creating a better soundscape during park design and management processes. The analysis of users' social, demographical and behavioural factors such as age, visit frequency and length of stay, in relation to the soundscape experience, has also shown significant effects.

The introduction of the concept of soundscape to urban design analysis

The objective of this paper was to provide pragmatic approach through the analysis of Covent Garden Piazza's soundscape with intention to show the way of its implementation into urban design analysis, whereas analysis of soundscape is missing part of urban design analysis. So, soundscape suppose to be a new tool for designer to create more pleasant sound ambient environments not only for users who are able to perceive urban space visually but also for those who can use another senses only like aural and tactile to identify relevant quality of urban places. In this research were employed methods of subjective evaluation and spatial analysis of soundscape (entirely qualitative research). The data were collected through exploration of the soundscape preference and level of awareness of ambient sound environment within explorative single case study and thorough observation of activities on the study site and investigation of urban form. Thus, the urban uses and activities of the location and its acoustic identification are closely linked. Recent urban analyses generally take only human and technical noises into consideration, excluding the rest of noises of sonic environment and way of their perception by human beings. Acoustic dimensions must be available for design.

Towards standardization in soundscape preference assessment

The study of soundscapes involves diverse fields of practice, diverse approaches and diverse disciplinary interests. The field overlaps with the much larger and established field of environmental noise management, and also intersects, to various degrees, with other areas of acoustics such as sound quality, human acoustic comfort in buildings, and music—and also with non-acoustic fields such as wilderness and recreation management, urban and housing design, and landscape planning and management. Working Group 54 of ISO/TC 43/SC 1 has been formed with a remit of standardization for perceptual assessment of human sound preference (in outdoor space) using questionnaires. The working group began its work in 2009, with considerable and wide-ranging discussion amongst its members. This paper makes a range of observations, and sometimes suggestions, on matters pertinent to eventual definition of the soundscape; on outcomes of interest arising from experience of a soundscape; on the role of context in assessment; on sound sources in different places; and on relevant lessons for soundscape assessment from experience of questionnaire measurement of noise annoyance. It represents a personal view, though informed by a range of opinions from the Working Group meeting and from literature.