Investigating urban soundscapes of the COVID-19 lockdown -- A predictive soundscape modelling approach

The soundscape circumplex coordinates for (a) the mean ISOPleasant and ISOEventful responses for each location and (b) the mean predicted responses based on the recordings made during the lock- down and the change in the location’s placement in the circumplex. In (b), the marker outline is shown for the 2019 location, and red arrows indicate the change in the location’s coordinates.

Abstract

The unprecedented lockdowns resulting from COVID-19 in spring 2020 triggered changes in human activities in public spaces. A predictive modeling approach was developed to characterize the changes in the perception of the sound environment when people could not be surveyed. Building on a database of soundscape questionnaires (N = 1,136) and binaural recordings (N = 687) collected in 13 locations across London and Venice during 2019, new recordings (N = 571) were made in the same locations during the 2020 lockdowns. Using these 30-s-long recordings, linear multilevel models were developed to predict the soundscape pleasantness (R2 = 0:85) and eventfulness (R2 = 0:715) during the lockdown and compare the changes for each location. The performance was above average for comparable models. An online listening study also investigated the change in the sound sources within the spaces. Results indicate (1) human sounds were less dominant and natural sounds more dominant across all loca- tions; (2) contextual information is important for predicting pleasantness but not for eventfulness; (3) perception shifted toward less eventful soundscapes and to more pleasant soundscapes for previously traffic-dominated loca- tions but not for human- and natural-dominated locations. This study demonstrates the usefulness of predictive modeling and the importance of considering contextual information when discussing the impact of sound level reductions on the soundscape.

Publication
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA)

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