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Fig. 7. Human hearing discriminates low-frequency tones, such as the engine orders of the passing bus. In addition to the psychoacoustic and level-based measures, a spectrum vs. time measurement with good frequency resolution at low frequencies, such as this variable-frequency-resolution (VFR) analysis, proves useful. The verti- cal axis is frequency and the color axis represents sound pressure level in B-weighted dB.
Data collection—Long term
Soundscaping may be undertaken as a complete study with long-term, detailed measurements of physical acousti- cal parameters, and comprehensive attitudinal surveys. Brief preliminary results may be obtained through the use of local police or other public workers, who are assigned to obtain short sound level samples and activity observations, along with personal assessments, during their normal daily
3,6
The “Soundscape Approach,” understood as a qualita- tive-quantitative methodology, has been applied recently in several field studies. Empirically, the perception of sounds
A typical form for this type of preliminary survey is shown below.
rounds in the community.
and their evaluation were explored under the premise of combining human judgment and physical factors. In those field studies, the environmental noise perception and eval- uation in a defined urban area were investigated in detail. For that reason, open, narrative, but issue-centred inter- views with residents were carried out, and those interviews allowed the interviewed persons to set their own focus on certain aspects. The interviews are the basis for the subject-
2–6,9
evaluations depend on the social and cultural structures in which the individual is embedded. Therefore, the socio- cultural frame of reference, which the sound-exposed per-
centered categorization.
The qualitative data analysis shows that the sound
Soundscape and Community Noise 13