FRIDAY MORNING, 20 MAY 2005 REGENCY E, 8:30 A.M. TO 12:00 ...

two major evaluative components, labeled Hedonic Tone and Eventfulness. Furthermore, it was found the mere presence of common
sound sources, regardless of sound level, correlated significantly with these evaluative components. Technological sounds e.g., traffic
noise were negatively associated with both Hedonic Tone and Eventfulness, while a positive association was found between Hedonic
Tone and sounds of nature e.g., bird song, and a positive association was found between Eventfulness and human sounds e.g.,
human voices. These relationships lead to the hypothesis that introduction of nature and human sounds, in combination with the
reduction of technological sounds may improve the quality of soundscapes considerably.
9:35
5aNS4. Assessment of outdoor soundscapes in quiet areas. Mats E. Nilsson and Birgitta Berglund Inst. of Environ. Medicine,
Karolinska Inst. and Dept. of Psych., Stockholm Univ., SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden
Existing quiet outdoor areas should be preserved. Appropriate indicators and limit values are needed, which are grounded in
knowledge on positive aspects of soundscapes, such as perceived pleasantness and psychological restoration. For this reason, a
questionnaire study was conducted in four green areas close to a major city and in four city parks. Measured equivalent sound levels
LAeq, 15 min ranged between 42 and 50 dBA in the green areas, and between 49 and 60 dBA in the city parks. Sounds from nature,
such as bird song, completely dominated the soundscape in the green areas. The city-park soundscapes were more complex, containing
sounds from nature, as well as technological sounds e.g., traffic noise, and human sounds e.g., human voices. In general, sounds
from nature were perceived as pleasant, technical sounds as annoying, and human sounds as neutral. Between 84 and 100% of the
visitors in the green areas assessed the soundscapes as good or very good. The corresponding percentages for the city parks were
distinctly lower, between 52 and 65%. The results indicate that the equivalent sound level should be below 50 dBA in order to secure
pleasant and restorative outdoor soundscapes in urban areas.
9:55–10:15 Break
10:15
5aNS5. Techniques of analysis and their applicability in the context of community noise.
Schulte-Fortkamp ITA-Tech. Univ. Berlin, Einsteinufer 25, D-10587 Berlin, Germany
Andre Fiebig and Brigitte
There is common consent to the necessity using and combining subjective and objective data for a sufficient understanding of
human perception and evaluation of noise. Moreover, a wide discussion about methodology and techniques of analysis with respect to
new methods in the context of soundscape research, community noise, and annoyance evaluation is urgently needed. The presentation
at hand shows a methodological discussion of qualitative data and its systematic analysis based on explorative approaches applied in
two different surveys. For example, by means of the analysis a transfer from verbal evaluations based on habitual language to
acoustical descriptors is possible. Furthermore, the principals and steps of the analysis of qualitative data in the context of community
noise are presented. Insofar, with regard to an effective and unitized handling, options and possibilities of methods in connection with
specific techniques of analysis will be discussed.
10:35
5aNS6. Correlation of airport noise complaint terminology with available noise metrics. Nancy S. Timmerman Consultant in
Acoust. and Noise Control, 25 Upton St., Boston, MA 02118-1609
In the discussion of airport noise, there is a disconnect between the language used by complainants and the acoustical terminology
available to the technical community. It will be shown in what ways the complaint terminology can be described with the available
noise metrics and in what ways it cannot. The complaint terminology analyzed comes from the author’s personal previous experience
as noise control officer at Logan International Airport. Examples of some of these are aircraft noise is: too loud, too late, too
early, unending, continuous, at the wrong time, so loud it sets off car alarms, so loud I cannot hear the TV/telephone/radio, so loud it
woke me up, and annoying. Terms which are not related to noise are mentioned, but not correlated. The acoustical terminology comes
from the international literature and includes the standard noise metrics as well as some more recently proposed. The airport noise
metrics discussed include measures of single events maximum level, SEL, duration, signal-to-noise and measures of noise exposure
DNL, CNEL, Leq. It is shown that while cumulative noise metrics are useful for planning and comparison, they correlate with
complaint terminology less well than single event measures.
10:55
5aNS7. Explorative interviews as a tool for sound evaluation. Stephan Paul Lab. of Vib. and Acoust., Dept. of Mech. Eng.,
UFSC, CxP 476 Florianopolis, 88.040-900 SC, Brazil
Sound and noise evaluation needs to combine physical-measurements of sound with research on the interaction of the sound and
the human being. For this kind of research qualitative techniques and especially explorative interviews, with the addressed people are
appropriate as they consider the human being acting within this environment. The evaluation process refers to the basic concepts of
qualitative research. Different forms of interviews, how to prepare and conduct an interview and not to forget about the discipline
under investigation have to be considered. This clearly shows the requirement of transdisciplinarity including knowledge from
disciplines like engineering sciences, social sciences and psychology. To obtain the required information on the subject under
investigation within an interview the verbal ability of the addressed people has to be considered. The possibilities of transdisciplinary
work, check of verbal abilities as well as approaches for basic standardization in interviews and the need for cultural adaptation will
be discussed.
2592 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 117, No. 4, Pt. 2, April 2005 149th Meeting: Acoustical Society of America 2592