Classification of urban soundscape through social surveys

Abstract

The aim of this study is to characterize urban space, which is an aggregate of landscape, and natural lighting, and acoustics and to investigate the people's perception of urban soundscapes. A general questionnaire survey was performed to identify the experts' perception on urban spaces: a total of 300 people participated in the urban spaces in Seoul. The contexts of soundscape, which were defined by 'box task group' of ISO TC43 SC1 WG54, were evaluated by using 11-pt. numerical scale and narrative interviews were also carried out as well. It was found that urban soundscapes can be classified into three groups based on the evaluation results on the contexts, and dominant factors affecting overall impression of urban soundscape were different across classified groups.