Urban soundscapes- Experiences and knowledge
Cities, (2005)Abstract
The aim of the present work is to understand how the use of the notion
of soundscapes can help in conceiving ambient sound environments
in cities. From an overview of recent studies concerned with assessments
of sound phenomena in everyday-life situations, the relevance of
the soundscape concept is discussed as structuring the categorical
space of sounds in cities. Urban planners have been interviewed concerning
the soundscape concept in relation to urban projects. This allows
comparisons between acousticians’, city-users’ and planners’ categorizations
of urban soundscapes, and suggests that a simple decrease of noise
level or the elimination of noises is insufficient to account for
urban environment improvement.