Soundscape Indices (SSID)

The SSID project aims at providing new perception-oriented indices to complement the existing set of decibel-based metrics, for a better characterization, design and management of urban soundscapes.

SSID Overview

Eighty million EU citizens are suffering from excessive environmental noise and billions of euros are being spent on noise control, under the EU Directive on Environmental Noise. Unfortunately, the conventional approach, i.e. reduction of ‘sound level’, simply does not deliver the required improvements in quality of life. The growing field of ‘soundscape studies’ is addressing this gap by considering sound environment as perceived, in context, with an interdisciplinary approach. However, soundscapes are hugely complex and measuring them as a basis for environmental design requires a step change to the discipline. This research aims to achieve a ground-breaking development through the establishment of ‘soundscape indices’ (SSID), adequately reflecting levels of human comfort, the impact of which will be reminiscent of that of the Decibel scale created by Bell Systems a century ago. This will provide the underpinning science for soundscape in the field of built environment, with wider intellectual goals of moving from noise control to soundscape creation. Key objectives, as coherent steps for achieving the main aim, are: (1) To characterise soundscapes, by capturing soundscapes and establishing a comprehensive database, which will be a cornerstone for the proposed analysis and an invaluable resource for scientists for years to come. (2) To determine key factors and their influence on soundscape quality based on the database, by conducting laboratory psychological evaluation, physical/psychoacoustic factors analysis, and more importantly, to research at a physiological/biological level, including the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging. (3) To develop, test and validate the soundscape indices, through analysing the influences by various factors, using a number of inter- & trans-disciplinary approaches. (4) To demonstrate the applicability of the soundscape indices in practice, by establishing frameworks for soundscape prediction, design, and standardisation.

Impact

The outcomes of the SSID project are informing the activities of the working group ISO/TC 43/SC 1/WG 54 about the ISO 12913 standards series on soundscape. The SSID project team was involved in the organization of the UKAN Soundscape Workshop – a one-day workshop on practical applications of the soundscape approach that took place in June 2018 in London and was attended by 120+ participants from academia, industry and public sector.

Publications

Type	Title	Authors	Publications
Article in Journal	Towards an Urban Vibrancy Model: A Soundscape Approach	Francesco Aletta, Jian Kang	International Journal of  Environmental Research and Public Health
Article in Journal	Associations between Positive Health-Related Effects and Soundscapes Perceptual Constructs: A Systematic Review	Francesco Aletta, Tin Oberman, Jian Kang	International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Article in Journal	Acoustic Design Criteria in Naturally Ventilated Residential Buildings: New Research Perspectives by Applying the Indoor Soundscape Approach	Simone Torresin, Rossano Albatici, Francesco Aletta, Francesco Babich, Tin Oberman, Jian Kang	Applied Sciences
Article in Journal	Exploring the compatibility of “Method A” and “Method B” data collection protocols reported in the ISO/TS 12913-2:2018 for urban soundscape via a soundwalk	Francesco Aletta, Claudia Guattari, Luca Evangelisti, Francesco Asdrubali, Tin Oberman, Jian Kang	Applied Acoustics
Article in Journal	Historical Acoustics: Relationships between People and Sound over Time	Francesco Aletta, Jian Kang	Acoustics
Article in Journal	Promoting Healthy and Supportive Acoustic Environments: Going beyond the Quietness	Francesco Aletta, Jian Kang	International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Article in Journal	The Impact and Outreach of Soundscape Research	Jian Kang, Francesco Aletta	Environments
Article in Journal	The Psychophysiological Implications of Soundscape: A Systematic Review of Empirical Literature and a Research Agenda	Mercede Erfanian, Andrew J. Mitchell, Jian Kang, Francesco Aletta	International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Article in Journal	The Soundscape Indices (SSID) Protocol: A Method for Urban Soundscape Surveys—Questionnaires with Acoustical and Contextual Information	Andrew Mitchell, Tin Oberman, Francesco Aletta, Mercede Erfanian, Magdalena Kachlicka, Matteo Lionello, Jian Kang	Applied Sciences
Article in Journal	Soundscape evaluation: Binaural or monaural?	Chunyang Xu, Jian Kang	The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Article in Journal	Effect of a fragrant tree on the perception of traffic noise	Meihui Ba, Jian Kang	Building and Environment
Article in Journal	A model for implementing soundscape maps in smart cities	Jian Kang, Francesco Aletta, Efstathios Margaritis, Ming Yang	Noise Mapping
Article in Journal	Associations between soundscape experience and self-reported wellbeing in open public urban spaces: a field study	Francesco Aletta, Tin Oberman, Andrew Mitchell, Mercede Erfanian, Matteo Lionello, Magdalena Kachlicka, Jian Kang	The Lancet
Article in Journal	Exploring associations between soundscape assessment, perceived safety and well-being: a pilot field study in Granary Square, London	Francesco Aletta, Luca Molinero, Arianna Astolfi, Sonja Di Blasio, Louena Shtrepi, Tin Oberman, Jian Kang	Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress on Acoustics
Article in Journal	Influence of distance from traffic sounds on physiological indicators and subjective evaluation	Zhongzhe Li, Jian Kang, Meihui Ba	Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
Article in Journal	Indoor soundscape assessment: A principal components model of acoustic perception in residential buildings	Simone Torresin, Rossano Albatici, Francesco Aletta, Francesco Babich, Tin Oberman, Stefano Siboni, Jian Kang	Building and Environment
Article in Journal	Assessing the changing urban sound environment during the COVID-19 lockdown period using short-term acoustic measurements	Francesco Aletta, Tin Oberman, Andrew Mitchell, Huan Tong, Jian Kang	Noise mapping
Article in Journal	Acoustics for Supportive and Healthy Buildings: Emerging Themes on Indoor Soundscape Research	Simone Torresin, Francesco Aletta, Francesco Babich, Ethan Bourdeau, Jack Harvie-Clark, Jian Kang, Lisa Lavia, Antonella Radicchi, Rossano Albatici	Sustainability
Article in Journal	The future of urban sound environments: Impacting mobility trends and insights for noise assessment and mitigation	A. Can, A. L'Hostis, P. Aumond, D. Botteldooren, M.C. Coelho, C. Guarnaccia, J. Kang	Applied Acoustics
Article in Journal	A systematic review of prediction models for the experience of urban soundscapes	Matteo Lionello, Francesco Aletta, Jian Kang	Applied Acoustics
Article in Journal	On the relationship between land use and sound sources in the urban environment	Efstathios Margaritis, Jian Kang, Francesco Aletta, Östen Axelsson	Journal of Urban Design
Article in Journal	Building performance evaluation: Balancing energy and indoor environmental quality in a UK school building	Nishesh Jain, Esfand Burman, Craig Robertson, Samuel Stamp, Clive Shrubsole, Francesco Aletta, Edward Barrett, Tin Oberman, Jian Kang, Peter Raynham, D Mumovic, Mike Davies	Building Services Engineering Research and Technology
Article in Journal	Assessment Methods and Factors Determining Positive Indoor Soundscapes in Residential Buildings: A Systematic Review	Torresin,  Albatici,  Aletta,  Babich,  Kang	Sustainability
Article in Journal	Positive health-related effects of perceiving urban soundscapes: a systematic review	Francesco Aletta, Tin Oberman, Jian Kang	The Lancet
Article in Journal	The influence of vegetation and surrounding traffic noise parameters on the sound environment of urban parks	Efstathios Margaritis, Jian Kang, Karlo Filipan, Dick Botteldooren	Applied Geography
Publication in Conference proceeding/workshop	Making cities smarter with new soundscape indices	Andrew Mitchell, Francesco Aletta, Tin Oberman, Mercede Erfanian, Magdalena Kachlicka, Matteo Lionello, Jian Kang	The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Publication in Conference proceeding/workshop	The spectral structure of acoustic time series can predict the perceptual assessment of urban soundscapes	Andrew Mitchell, Jian Kang	The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Publication in Conference proceeding/workshop	On the Dimension and Scaling Analysis of Soundscape Assessment Tools: a case study about the “Method A” of ISO/TS 12913-2:2018	Matteo Lionello, Francesco Aletta, Jian Kang	Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress on Acoustics
Publication in Conference proceeding/workshop	Towards a Soundscape Surround Index	Tin Oberman, Kristian Jambrošic, Francesco Aletta, Jian Kang	Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress on Acoustics
Publication in Conference proceeding/workshop	Towards soundscape indices	Jian Kang, Francesco Aletta, Tin Oberman, Mercede Erfanian, Magdalena Kachlicka, Matteo Lionello, Andrew Mitchell	Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress on Acoustics
Publication in Conference proceeding/workshop	Correlations between sound level and loudness, intimacy, reverberation, clarity, spaciousness in sequential spaces	Tingting Yang, Jian Kang	Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress on Acoustics
Publication in Conference proceeding/workshop	Simplification of Reflection Orders in Virtual Soundscapes through a Subjective Evaluation	Chunyang Xu, Jian Kang	Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress on Acoustics

 

 

Collaborators

• French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks (IFSTTAR), France
• University of Granada, Spain
• Polytechnic Institute of Turin, Italy
• University of Roma Tre, Italy
• University of Zagreb, Croatia
• Noise Abatement Society, UK
• Shenyang Jianzhu University, China
• Harbin Institute of Technology, China
• Chongqing University, China

Links

Soundscape Indices (SSID) Researchgate

 

 

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/740696

People

• Jian Kang
• Francesco Aletta
• Tin Oberman
• Mercede Erfanian
• Magdalena Kachlicka
• Matteo Lionello
• Andrew Mitchell