Evaluation of urban soundscape using soundwalking

Abstract

In this study, urban soundscapes was evaluated through soundwalking. Soundwalking was conducted during ISO meeting in Seoul, thus international as well as domestic experts in the soundscape studies were participated. Subjects were asked to walk along a route with different characteristics of urban soundscape, and to concentrate on what they could hear as they walked and observed the urban environments. At each site, the subjects evaluated the overall impression and preference to context of soundscape. During the soundwalking, audio-visual recordings were carried out by using binaural microphone and video camera. From the results, the factors affecting the perception of urban soundscape were extracted, and the responses from domestic and international experts were compared.