Research on soundscape identification - A case study in Shenzhen, China

Subjective evaluation of soundscape is much related with the sound sources. Due to ambiguous understanding of annoy perception of a noise, a large number of soundscapes were recorded. The study samples were obtained via intensive field works covering spatial and temporal variations of Shenzhen, China. Using Co-kriging method, information content of sound source to all soundscape samples was thoroughly analyzed. Forty-four typical sounds representing various sound sources in Shenzhen were gained. Experimental research was conducted to depict how various sounds influencing subjective evaluations, in which more than two hundred participants were involved. Five soundscape categories were got based on cluster analysis on subjective annoyance evaluations to forty-four typical sounds. It is found that soundscapes with more natural sounds were perceived less annoy whereas the ones having more mechanical sounds perceived more annoy; however, to some soundscapes containing more urban living sounds or hybrid sounds, subjective evaluations were not definite. A reason might be related with an individual's social and cultural background linking with former experiences from once happened incidents linking with social activities/functions