A method to collect representative samples of urban soundscapes

Julien Tardieu (1) , Cynthia Magnen (1) , Marie-Mandarine Colle Quesada (2) , Nathalie Spanghero-Gaillard (2) , Pascal Gaillard (3)

1 MSHS-T - Maison des Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société de Toulouse
2 LERASS - Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherches Appliquées en Sciences Sociales
3 CLLE - Cognition, langues, langage, ergonomie

Many studies of urban soundscapes have been performed with different aims ranging from auditory perception, to evaluation of noise annoyance, sound design for public places, speech learning, and urban planning, among others. A typical first step of most studies involves collecting soundscape samples, which has one major limitation: it is a selection from the scientist's own representation of the urban soundscape being studied. This paper addresses this issue with a method based on online questionnaire surveys. In this study, we collected French linguistic data through a large-scale questionnaire survey to find the shared knowledge about soundscapes in three types of urban situations at different times during the day. From a linguistic analysis of the responses, we elaborated profiles to be used to guide the recording of soundscapes or the selection in a database. These profiles consist of a distribution of different sound sources and human activities that is different for each type of situation. The proposed method and results as well as possible future applications are likewise presented. PACS no. 43.90+v, 43.66.+y

Domaines: Psychologie; Linguistique

Julien Tardieu, Cynthia Magnen, Marie-Mandarine Colle Quesada, Nathalie Spanghero-Gaillard, Pascal Gaillard. A method to collect representative samples of urban soundscapes. Science and technology for a quiet Europe, May 2015, Maastricht, Netherlands. ⟨hal-01572478⟩