Describing soundscape and its effects on people where soundscape is understood as an expansion of the concept of noise engineering

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2006-11, Vol.120 (5_Supplement), p.3238-3238
• Main Author: Kawai, Keiji
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.4788255

This study discusses how to describe sound environment and people in terms of ‘‘soundscape’’ as an expansion of the ‘‘noise engineering.’’ In the framework of the conventional study field of noise evaluation, typically, sound environments are represented by loudness-based indices such as A-weighted sound pressure levels, and the impact of sound environments on people is represented by annoyance response or some physiological metrics. In the case of soundscape studies, however, the description should be expanded beyond what has been used in noise engineering. This matter has already been frequently discussed, but it doesn’t seem that much consensus has been achieved concerning it yet. With respect to the effects of sound environment on people, since the concept of soundscape focuses on personal and social meanings of environmental sounds including the historical or aesthetic contexts, the effects are considered to be represented not by a singular concept such as comfortableness or quietness, but by multiple dimensions of emotional and aesthetic concepts. Also, descriptions of sound environment should include some qualitative aspects, such as what types of sounds can be heard at what extent. In this paper, the methodology to describe human-soundscape relationships is discussed through a review of related studies.