Street listening: A Characterisation of the Sound Environment: the "qualifed listening in motion" method

International audienceThe localisation and the characterisation of the meaningful sound phenomena allow a metrological economy, by answering the classical questions on the acoustic evaluation of a large urban zone: what should one measure, where, when, and using what types of measures and analysis? This complementary approach to the more classical techniques enable us to widen the field of the observable in acoustic metrology thanks to an interdisciplinary combination of the sound phenomenon (characterisation of the built surroundings, of the activities, urban perceptions, measures and temporality …) Furthermore, the measurements and recordings only grasp certain dimensions of the perceived sound environment. Taking the walkcourse as a basis, the urban speech and way of listening introduce fundamental parameters to the qualification of atmosphere, namely the time dynamics and the interaction of the city dwellers to their surroundings. This method can be easily adapted to the different places and purposes of the study