Application of soundscape design elements in urban streetscape design

Abstract

Due to complicate interaction between sounds and human noise perception, many approaches to evaluate sound environment have been investigated as a concept of soundscape. Recently, considerable efforts have been investigated as a concept of soundscape. Recently, considerable efforts have been made on standardization of perceptual soundscape evaluation in ISO-TC 43/SC 1/WG 54 for practical application. In this study, urban streetscapes based on soundscape design elements were evaluated through laboratory experiments. Road traffic noise has been chosen as a negative sound source in urban spaces and natural sound (water and birds sounds connected to water features and trees, respectively) have been selected as positive elements to enhance urban sound environments. The experiments consisted of three parts: 1) a visual-only condition, 2) an audio-only condition, and 3) a combined audio-visual condition. Streetscapes with soundscape design elements were evaluated by 11 point numerical scale and 12 pairs of semantic adjectives. As results, the effects of the soundscape design elements have been examined.