Effect of soundscape dimensions on acoustic comfort in urban open public spaces

Abstract Soundscapes in public squares play important roles in urban open spaces. This study aimed to discover the effect of four soundscape dimensions, namely relaxation, communication, spatiality and dynamics, on acoustic comfort in urban open public spaces. A typical city square in China was selected as a case site. Sound environment measurements and questionnaire surveys were carried out for 8 survey positions. The results showed that the perceived dominance of sound sources had a significant effect on relaxation, communication, spatiality and dynamics. Relaxation was greater when the natural sound was perceived dominantly, while it was lower when mechanical sounds or anthropogenic sounds were perceived dominantly. Acoustic comfort had a significant correlation with the soundscape dimensions and LAeq, with spearman’s correlation coefficients of 0.495 (relaxation), 0.210 (sound pressure level) and 0.288 (spatiality). In terms of the differences in perceived sound types, acoustic comfort was positively correlated with relaxation when natural sound or anthropogenic sound was perceived dominantly. As spatiality increased, acoustic comfort first decreased and later increased when relaxation was higher, while there were positive correlations between acoustic comfort and relaxation under the other situations. Moreover, when spatiality or communication was higher, there were significant correlations between acoustic comfort and dynamics. According to these results, acoustic comfort can be increased as soundscape dimensions change in an urban open public space.

[1]  J. Defrance,et al.  Integration of the efficiency of noise barrier caps in a 3D ray tracing method. Case of a T-shaped diffracting device , 2003 .

[2]  Jian Kang,et al.  Towards standardization in soundscape preference assessment , 2011 .

[3]  Antonio J. Torija,et al.  Use of back-propagation neural networks to predict both level and temporal-spectral composition of sound pressure in urban sound environments , 2012 .

[4]  M. Nilsson,et al.  A field experiment on the impact of sounds from a jet-and-basin fountain on soundscape quality in an urban park , 2014 .

[5]  Takaya Kojima,et al.  Personal evaluation structure of environmental sounds: Experiments of subjective evaluation using subjects' own terms , 2004 .

[6]  Luigi Maffei,et al.  Ten questions on the soundscapes of the built environment , 2016 .

[7]  Jian Kang,et al.  Effects of typical dining styles on conversation behaviours and acoustic perception in restaurants in China , 2017 .

[8]  B. Berglund,et al.  A principal components model of soundscape perception. , 2010, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[9]  Paul Jennings,et al.  The development and application of the emotional dimensions of a soundscape , 2013 .

[10]  Catherine Semidor,et al.  Evaluation of sound environment characteristics: Comparative study between objective and subjective criteria , 2005 .

[11]  Birgitta Berglund,et al.  A Swedish instrument for measuring soundscape quality , 2009 .

[12]  Pyoung Jik Lee,et al.  Perceptual assessment of quality of urban soundscapes with combined noise sources and water sounds. , 2010, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[13]  Yang Sun,et al.  Effect of temporary open-air markets on the sound environment and acoustic perception based on the crowd density characteristics. , 2017, The Science of the total environment.

[14]  D. Dubois,et al.  A cognitive approach to urban soundscapes : Using verbal data to access everyday life auditory categories , 2006 .

[15]  Jian Kang,et al.  Soundscape descriptors and a conceptual framework for developing predictive soundscape models , 2016 .

[16]  Jin Yong Jeon,et al.  Varying the spectral envelope of air-conditioning sounds to enhance indoor acoustic comfort , 2011 .

[17]  Saad Abo-Qudais,et al.  Effect of distance from road intersection on developed traffic noise levels , 2004 .

[18]  Jian Kang,et al.  Spatiotemporal variability of soundscapes in a multiple functional urban area , 2013 .

[19]  Lei Yu.  Soundscape evaluation and ANN modelling in urban open spaces , 2009 .

[20]  William J. Davies,et al.  Research into the practical and policy applications of soundscape concepts and techniques in urban areas (NANR 200) , 2009 .

[21]  Cliff Moughtin,et al.  Urban Design: Street and Square , 1992 .

[22]  Hong Jin,et al.  Prediction of subjective loudness in underground shopping streets using artificial neural networks , 2012 .

[23]  Jian Kang,et al.  Soundscape Perception of Urban Recreational Green Space , 2016 .

[24]  J. Carles,et al.  Audio‐visual interactions and soundscape preferences , 1992 .

[25]  John B. Shoven,et al.  I , Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal.

[26]  Jian Kang,et al.  Acoustic comfort evaluation in urban open public spaces , 2005 .

[27]  Zhou An-we.  On Complex Design of Municipal Square , 2003 .

[28]  L. Eriksson.  Development of the filtered‐U algorithm for active noise control , 1990 .

[29]  Qi Meng,et al.  Effect of sound-related activities on human behaviours and acoustic comfort in urban open spaces. , 2016, The Science of the total environment.

[30]  Yiu W. Lam,et al.  The validation of acoustic environment simulator to determine the relationship between sound objects and soundscape , 2017 .

[31]  Hong Jin,et al.  Field study on the influence of spatial and environmental characteristics on the evaluation of subjective loudness and acoustic comfort in underground shopping streets , 2013 .

[32]  D. Hall,et al.  Perception of soundscapes: An interdisciplinary approach , 2013 .

[33]  Jian Kang,et al.  Dimensions Underlying the Perceived Similarity of Acoustic Environments , 2017, Front. Psychol..

[34]  Francesco Martellotta,et al.  Acoustic comfort evaluation for hypermarket workers , 2013 .

[35]  Mei Zhang,et al.  Semantic differential analysis of the soundscape in urban open public spaces , 2010 .

[36]  Luigi Maffei,et al.  Merging physical parameters and laboratory subjective ratings for the soundscape assessment of urban squares. , 2013, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[37]  Saad Abo-Qudais,et al.  Environmental impact assessment of road construction projects. , 2000 .

[38]  Mark S. Litwin,et al.  How to Measure Survey Reliability and Validity , 1995 .

[39]  Mercedes Ferrer,et al.  Sound Environment as an Element of Urban Analysis for Public Spaces , 2015 .

[40]  Mostafa Refat Ismail,et al.  Computer Modelling of Urban Noise Propagation , 2003 .

[41]  Sergio Castiñeira-Ibáñez,et al.  Environmental noise control during its transmission phase to protect buildings. Design model for acoustic barriers based on arrays of isolated scatterers , 2015 .

[43]  Jian Kang,et al.  Combining noise mapping and ventilation performance for non-domestic buildings in an urban area , 2012 .

[44]  Catherine Lavandier,et al.  AMBIENT SOUND ASSESSMENT OF URBAN ENVIRONMENTS: FIELD STUDIES IN TWO FRENCH CITIES , 2003 .

[45]  Pavel Zahorik,et al.  Assessing auditory distance perception using virtual acoustics. , 2002, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[46]  Jian Kang,et al.  The influence of crowd density on the sound environment of commercial pedestrian streets. , 2015, The Science of the total environment.