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In conclusion, an extended set of soundscape attributes (116) were well
integrated in the three components: pleasantness, eventfulness, and familiarity.
Pleasantness and eventfulness aggregate the soundscape attribute in a circumplex
pattern. An exciting soundscape is the combination of pleasant and eventful, a calm
soundscape is the result of the combination of a pleasant and uneventful condition.
A calm soundscape would be pleasant and uneventful, but a chaotic soundscape
would be unpleasant and eventful, and a monotonous soundscape would be the
result of unpleasant and uneventful.
Soundscape excerpts dominated by technological sounds were considered
unpleasant, those dominated by human sound were considered eventful, and these
relationships survived after the control of loudness.
Definitively, the outdoor urban soundscape can be represented by two
dimensions: pleasantness and eventfulness. This model confirms the simplicity of
soundscape perception, the few basic dimensions related to the informational
properties of the categories of sounds. The high number of excerpts and their
variety should assure a good set of sonic combinations and, conversely, stability,
representativeness, and generalizability to the proposed model.
In conclusion these authors propose a model in which a sonic environment is
divided into two-dimensional spaces defined by the following attributes: pleasant,
exciting, eventful, chaotic, unpleasant, monotonous, uneventful, and calm. These
spaces represent eight vectors separated by 45
of a “circumplex model of
soundscape perception.”
5.7 Noise Pollution: A Growing Problem for Human
Societies
Noise is related to human activities such as road traffic, air traffic, industry, civil
engineering, recreational activities, and outdoor equipment. The exposure of people
to noise effects is dramatically high in the world. It is estimated that at least
500 million inhabitants are exposed to hazardous levels of noise.
More than half the European population is living in an uncomfortable sonic
environment: 30 % of the people are exposed during the night to a sound pressure
level
55 dB(A) that creates sleep disturbances. In developing urban areas, the
situation is worst with people exposed during 24 h to a noise dose of 75-80 dB(A).
In total, 80 million Europeans are affected by an unacceptable dose of noise,
30 million are exposed to noise in the work environment, and 170 million are
living in “grey areas” where the noise produces severe annoyance during the day,
and 40 % of the European population is exposed to road traffic noise exceeding
55 dB(A) in the daytime and 20 % is exposed to levels
>
65 dB(A). For instance, in
Germany it is reported that road traffic and air traffic are the two major source of
annoyance, but 6.5 % of German citizens are highly annoyed by the noise produced
by their neighbors. In Sweden more than 2 million people (25 % of the population)
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