Article,
Acoustic comfort evaluation in urban open public spaces
Applied Acoustics, (2005)
Abstract
This paper presents the results of an intensive questionnaire survey
and objective measurements on soundscape, aiming at the evaluation
of acoustic comfort in urban open public spaces. From summer 2001
to spring 2002, 9200 interviews were made for four seasons in 14
urban open public spaces across Europe. The results suggest that
the subjective evaluation of the sound level generally relates well
with the mean Leq, especially when the sound level is below a certain
level, which is 73 dBA on the basis of this study. However, considerable
differences have been found between the subjective evaluation of
the sound level and the acoustic comfort evaluation: people tend
to show more tolerance in terms of acoustic comfort evaluation. The
background sound level has been found to be an important index in
evaluating soundscape in urban open public spaces – a lower background
level tends to make people feel quieter. Analyses of individual sound
elements show that the acoustic comfort evaluation is greatly affected
by the sound source type – introducing a pleasant sound can considerably
improve the acoustic comfort, even when its sound level is rather
high. No significant difference was found among different age groups
in terms of subjective evaluation of a sound level, whereas in terms
of acoustic comfort, there were significant differences.
