Search

The soundscape approach, as understood by the ISO 12913 series, is most applied in urban settings, aiming beyond noise control in order to holistically employ its quantitative and qualitative facets. On the other side, the current understanding of the soundscape concept in bioacoustics and acoustic ecology is less focused on perception. There is generally a lot of public interest in how to preserve the opportunity for people to experience the "natural quiet" and "the sounds of nature", and the need to balance that with the protection of the natural areas and national parks from the noise that the visitors themselves generate while on site. However, specific investigations in these environments are scarce in the UK. Moreover, while there might be acoustic environments and sound sources that people identify with national parks, they are not systematically documented nor implemented in the national parks' management plans. Therefore, we propose a framework starting with a quasi-crowd-sourced acquisition of soundscape data and mapping those to a freely accessible GIS platform such as Google Earth, leading towards identifying soundscape conservation targets and management tools for the UK national parks, further raising the awareness of the value of sound as a resource.

Developments in electronics and computer science have led to the introduction of an automated bioacoustic identification device used to resolve commonly encountered problems in the identification of animal species in the field. This technology aids our auditory observations, and also improves the quality of biological surveys and environmental monitoring. In this paper the future roles and possibilities of bioacoustics are discussed, providing some examples from the realm of environmental education and monitoring that focus on the use of nature sounds. Avanços em eletrônica e em ciências da computação levaram ao desenvolvimento de um instrumento de identificação bioacústica automática utilizado para resolver os problemas encontrados freqüentemente na identificação das espécies animais no campo. Esta tecnologia ajuda nossas observações auditivas e também melhora a qualidade dos levantamentos biológicos e do monitoramento ambiental. Neste artigo, os futuros papéis e possibilidades da bioacústica são discutidos apresentando alguns exemplos do universo da educação ambiental e do monitoramento que focalizam o uso de sons da natureza.

This dissertation constructs a critical and cultural history of the “sound map,” a notational practice that can be defined in two ways: first, as diagrams, spatial graphics, or geophysical representations that adopt sound as their thematic object; second, as a way of thinking, a specifically sonic consciousness, that situates the interaction between sound and space as co-productive. Acting as a conceptual bridge, sound maps link the idea for a “soundscape” back to the complex realities of sound’s transience: its weather-like properties, which make sound difficult to study and impossible to root. Each chapter links sound maps to a particular theoretical or cultural moment. The first locates the conceptual development of the sound map among the work of Harvard physicist Wallace Sabine, whose acoustical research yielded not only useful quantitative models, but provocative visual demonstrations of sound’s tendency to change as it moves through and interacts with the physical environment. The second and third chapters conduct a critical analysis of urban and environmental sound maps — from the publications of the World Soundscape Project, to “Noise Exposure Maps” overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration. In addition to proposing a broad typology, these chapters work to disentangle the visual form of sound maps from the methodologies used to construct them. The fourth chapter studies how composers during the mid- and late twentieth century utilize sound maps as a discrete notational element, one that opens new possibilites for creative action and embodied performance. The fifth chapter traces the influence of sound maps onto the work of utopian cyberneticist Nicolas Schoffer, whose provocative vision for the city of the future asks us to consider how sonic indeterminacies might be re-composed dynamically, and in real time, to make urban life sound more pleasing.

Sound source localization is a well-researched subject with applications ranging from localizing sniper fire in urban battlefields to cataloging wildlife in rural areas. One critical application is the localization of noise pollution sources in urban environments, due to an increasing body of evidence linking noise pollution to adverse effects on human health. Current noise mapping techniques often fail to accurately identify noise pollution sources, because they rely on the interpolation of a limited number of scattered sound sensors. Aiming to produce accurate noise pollution maps, we developed the SoundCompass, a low-cost sound sensor capable of measuring local noise levels and sound field directionality. Our first prototype is composed of a sensor array of 52 Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphones, an inertial measuring unit and a low-power field-programmable gate array (FPGA). This article presents the SoundCompass's hardware and firmware design together with a data fusion technique that exploits the sensing capabilities of the SoundCompass in a wireless sensor network to localize noise pollution sources. Live tests produced a sound source localization accuracy of a few centimeters in a 25-m2 anechoic chamber, while simulation results accurately located up to five broadband sound sources in a 10,000-m2 open field.