Exploratory analysis of the factors involved in the perception of the quality of urban soundscapes

The identity of urban environments are largely determined by their history and current use, which should be closely related. Moreover, the particular sound of a specific urban site should be a distinct component of its image and identity, thanks to which, the latter should be compatible and coherent with its use. At present, the range of city operations often has a negative impact on sound, which results in the degradation of the soundscape o sound environment; thus, usually soundscapes might not be a differentiating factor. This research approaches the study of the urban sound environment from a holistic point of view, based on the perspective of the concept of soundscape. This paper presents the findings of a research study aimed at evaluating the sound quality of urban environments, whereby we try to identify and assess the significance of the factors influencing their appreciation concerning either their type, context and use, or associated measurable acoustic parameters. To this end, we selected eleven sites representative of Central District Granada, which were evaluated in situ by university students using the soundwalk technique. In addition, during the walks, binaural recordings were made and photographs of each environment were taken. These were then displayed to subjects of similar characteristics in the laboratory for evaluation. In each listening trial, the subjects were asked to fill in a questionnaire with open-ended and bipolar scale questions, with and without the image corresponding to the evaluated soundscape. We were thus able to analyze the influence of the visual environment on the perception of sound in public places. In order to analyze the relationships between the latter and the judgments made by the subjects themselves, we took into account the calculation of physical and psychoacoustic parameters corresponding to the recordings