Urban soundscape mapping based on GIS

Urban sound environments consists of various sound sources such as traffic noise, sounds of people and natural sounds affecting the perception of soundscape in a place. However, noise maps based on sound pressure levels could not distinguish different sound sources and limited to represent perception of acoustic environments. Accordingly, soundscape map based on perception of sounds is necessary to provide useful information for the description of the acoustic environment. Therefore, the aims of this study are to examine soundscape perception in different urban contexts including commercial, office, park and residential spaces and to suggest a method for soundscape maps using GIS techniques. Soundscape perceptions and physical characteristics of acoustic environments at various urban contexts were obtained from surveys and acoustic measurements, respectively. The results show that dominant factors affecting soundscape perceptions were different in urban contexts and spatial variations of urban soundscape are closely related to various urban contexts