Making “Sound Maps” of Cities – How and Why?
New ways of monitoring and mapping a city’s space are an important part of developing plans for climate action and also engaging community members. The use of “big data” analysis and crowdsourcing of data are examples of how digitalization is helping cities to understand their spaces. Now a new type of spatial mapping is being pioneered: urban soundscapes.
Four researchers in Italy and England developed a dictionary of urban sounds, then studied millions of geotagged Flickr photos from cities. This allowed them to map 12 different cities’ “soundscapes” at the level of specific streets, and then study the relationship between the type of soundscape and the emotions and perceptions of people within the soundscape. They also conducted “soundwalks” in two cities, asking locals to identify their perceptions of the sounds. Perceptions fell into four categories: chaotic, vibrant, monotonous, and calm.
The insights gained, they reported in Royal Society Open Science, “promise to inform the creation of restorative experiences in our increasingly urbanized world. … The ultimate goal of this work is to empower city managers and researchers to find solutions for an ecologically balanced soundscape where the relationship between the human community and its sonic environment is in harmony.” This builds on the recognition that long-term exposure to urban noise, especially traffic noise, results in sleeplessness and stress, increased learning impairments in children, and health hazards such as increased hypertension and heart attacks. But, the researchers note, “All this work has focused, however, on the negative side of urban sounds. Pleasant sounds have been left out from the urban planning literature, yet they have been shown to positively impact city dwellers’ health.”
City sound mapping creates a new baseline of spatial data.
Cities have unique and revealing “sound prints.” (Interactive sound maps for 12 cities here.) The sound maps for Madrid, New York City, and San Francisco below are color coded for categories of urban sounds: green for nature sounds, blue for human noise, red for transport, yellow for music, grey for buildings.
Madrid
New York City
San Francisco
Next up for this research team: producing city maps that integrate sound, smell, and visual perceptions—“to unite hitherto isolated studies in a new synergy … comprehensive multi-sensory research of cities.”
