Soundscape characterization in selected areas of Turin to differentiate between pleasant and unpleasant urban areas

Arianna Astolfi, Francesca La Malva, Pasquale Bottalico, Franco Pellerey

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

This work presents an approach used to assess the quality of soundscape in urban spaces. It consists in analyzing and correlating psychometric tools that measure the perception of environmental quality and in correlating subjective acoustic data with objective investigation of acoustic parameters. Survey has considered selected key-spaces of two districts of Turin (Italy), during summer 2010, winter 2011 and winter 2012, subdivided in nodes, paths and edges. The main aim of the work was to differentiate between pleasant and unpleasant urban areas, using a criteria different from the one that is currently adopted by acoustic specialists and which has limited relevance on open space comfort. One of the main finding is that, among all the environmental aspects, only the pleasantness of the sound environment is positively correlated to the overall environmental quality. Two well separated clusters classify the key-spaces with respect to sound pleasantness. The first cluster, characterized by lower pleasantness, groups the key-spaces categorized as both edges and nodes, while the second cluster groups the paths. These two clusters have been confirmed by a discriminant analysis on the objective acoustical factors, determining that a lower intensity and a greater fluctuation lead to a greater sound pleasantness.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationEURONOISE 2012 - 9th European Conference on Noise Control
Pages1386-1391
Number of pages6
StatePublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes
Event9th European Conference on Noise Control, EURONOISE 2012 - Prague, Czech Republic
Duration: Jun 10 2012Jun 13 2012

Publication series

NameProceedings - European Conference on Noise Control
ISSN (Print)2226-5147

Other

Other9th European Conference on Noise Control, EURONOISE 2012
Country/TerritoryCzech Republic
CityPrague
Period6/10/126/13/12

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Acoustics and Ultrasonics
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
  • Building and Construction
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
  • Automotive Engineering
  • Aerospace Engineering

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