Urban soundscape for sustainable human settlements.

Urban planners often have a good vision for the urban environment, but that vision is usually limited to visual aesthetics. The sound-based qualitative perspective of the urban environment, which includes sonic and ecological diversity in urban design, is generally ignored. The soundscape approach can be the most effective system for application in urban planning. This paper aims to apply the soundscape approach to urban planning and explore the impact of sound on the formation of urban open spaces through a case study of the Surakarta City parks Indonesia. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative research methods was used. The quantitative method was used to measure background noise using a sound level meter and visualize with a surfer mapping software. The qualitative method was used to observe behavior, the physical environment and perception through interviews. In this context, the paper concludes that the concept of the soundscape is a well-established theme in acoustic environments to identify acoustic data that is compared with the human perception of the environment. Human perceptions of the natural environment and elements of natural sounds, as physical factors, can shape human settlements into a better living environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]