SONOCO

Sounds play a pivotal role in how urban public places are perceived and how comfortable people feel when spending time there. While methods for visual design have long been established, there is still a lack of practical approaches for assessing and planning acoustic environments. Although understanding of soundscapes (experience-based acoustic environments in context) has steadily increased in recent years, there is currently no universal index that reliably captures the perception of soundscapes without requiring time-consuming field studies. Such an index could systematically integrate acoustic quality into urban planning and help create public places that contribute to a higher quality of urban life. The aim of this project is therefore to develop a Soundscape Comfort Index that measures how comfortable people feel in a given place and how likely they are to visit it. The prediction of soundscape comfort is intended to be practically related to urban planning and based solely on objectively measurable parameters.

The goals of the research project are to develop a valid method for measuring perceived acoustic quality in open urban public places, to identify ideal soundscapes for specific urban contexts, and to derive a context-specific Soundscape Comfort Index. In addition, the project seeks to determine which objectively measurable (psycho-)acoustic variables are required to reliably predict soundscape comfort.

Methodologically, the first step is to develop and validate a questionnaire to accurately assess perceived acoustic quality. To establish a broad and robust data basis and to evaluate different procedures in soundscape research, traditional field studies will be combined with data collection from listening tests and unsupervised field studies. For these unsupervised studies, a web platform will be implemented that uses elements of participatory sensing and fosters interaction between the city and its residents. In addition, procedures for group listening tests and online listening tests will be developed and validated. The data collected will form the basis for identifying ideal soundscapes and for the context-specific Soundscape Comfort Index. In the final step, statistical models will be developed to predict soundscape comfort based on objective (psycho-)acoustic variables according to different use scenarios.

Overall, scientifically profound Soundscape Comfort models should be provided to enable generalizable assessment of acoustic quality in open urban public places across Central Europe. In doing so, the project contributes to the standardization of data collection in soundscape studies, provides a practice-oriented foundation for acoustic perception in urban planning, and thereby possibly improves the quality of urban life.