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Dr. Francesco Aletta
University College London

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0 Sound
0 Soundscapes
0 noise and vibration control
0 Environmental Acoustics
0 urban sound planning

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Journal article
Published: 31 July 2021 in Journal of Environmental Psychology
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Soundscape studies aim to consider the holistic human perception of a sound environment, including both the physical phenomena and how these are mediated by internal factors. This study aims to assess the influence of psychological well-being and demographic factors including age, gender, occupation status, and education levels on the dimensions of the soundscape circumplex, i.e., Pleasantness and Eventfulness. Data was collected in eleven urban locations in London through a large-scale (N = 1134) soundscape survey according to the ISO 12913-2 technical specifications and incorporating the WHO-5 well-being index. Linear mixed-effects modelling applying backwards-step feature selection was used to model the interactions between internal factors including psychological well-being, age, gender, occupation status, education levels and the soundscape Pleasantness and Eventfulness, while accounting for the random effects of the survey location. The findings suggest that internal factors account for approximately 1.4% of the variance for Pleasantness and 3.9% for Eventfulness, while the influence of the locations accounted for approximately 34% and 14%, respectively. Psychological well-being is positively associated with perceived Pleasantness, while there is a negative association with Eventfulness only for males. Occupation status, in particular retirement as a proxy of age and gender, was identified as a significant factor for both dimensions. These findings offer empirical grounds for developing theories of the interaction between internal factors and soundscape formation whilst highlighting the importance of the location, namely: the context.

ACS Style

Mercede Erfanian; Andrew Mitchell; Francesco Aletta; Jian Kang. Psychological well-being and demographic factors can mediate soundscape pleasantness and eventfulness: A large sample study. Journal of Environmental Psychology 2021, 77, 101660 .

AMA Style

Mercede Erfanian, Andrew Mitchell, Francesco Aletta, Jian Kang. Psychological well-being and demographic factors can mediate soundscape pleasantness and eventfulness: A large sample study. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 2021; 77 ():101660.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mercede Erfanian; Andrew Mitchell; Francesco Aletta; Jian Kang. 2021. "Psychological well-being and demographic factors can mediate soundscape pleasantness and eventfulness: A large sample study." Journal of Environmental Psychology 77, no. : 101660.

Editorial article
Published: 28 June 2021 in Frontiers in Psychology
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Editorial on the Research Topic Human Perception of Environmental Sounds Environmental sounds are a key component of the human experience of a place as they carry meanings and contextual information, together with providing situational awareness. They have the potential to either support or disrupt specific activities as well as to trigger, to inhibit, or simply to change human behaviors in context. The experience of acoustic environments can result in either positive or negative perceptual outcomes, which are in turn related to well-being and Quality of Life. In spite of its relevance to the holistic experience of a place, the auditory domain is often not given enough prominence in environmental psychology studies. Environmental sounds are typically considered in their negative perspective of “noise” and treated as a by-product of society. However, the research (and practice) focus is gradually shifting toward using environmental sounds as mediators to promote and enrich communities' everyday life. Designers explore how natural sounds can be mixed into urban life. While there is a lot of research happening in this area, the underlying mechanisms connecting environmental sounds, the physical and social context where they occur, and their perceptual effects on users, are still not fully understood (Axelsson et al., 2019). Furthermore, when exploring the aforementioned relationships, more challenges arise in terms of psychometrics and ecological validity of the methodologies involved. All such issues need to be addressed by researchers and practitioners of the built environment. For this reason, a broad spectrum of submissions was invited for this Research Topic. Article types ranged from conceptual analyses, to reviews and research papers. The studies presented here dealt with the characterization and perception of single environmental sounds or complex acoustic environments, as well as their management and design implications for the urban realm. The focus could either be on theoretical aspects (e.g., relationships between sounds and psychological and physiological aspects) or methodological aspects (e.g., protocols and procedures to gather objective and subjective data). Considering the broad scope of the call for papers, the topics and research questions addressed by the submissions we received were very diverse. Looking retrospectively at them, we tried to identify common themes and eventually clustered them under four main categories. These were: Soundscape theory; Soundscape for health and well-being; Sound perception in urban environments; and Soundscape design. As we see, soundscape is a recurring concept; this is unsurprising considering how “perception”—which was the core aspect of this Research Topic— is an intrinsic aspect in soundscape studies (Kang et al., 2016). The term soundscape itself was standardized and defined as an “acoustic environment as perceived and/or understood by a person, or people, in context” (ISO, 2014). The standardization process for other methodological aspects is still in progress and is expected to be informed by the intense activity currently taking place both in soundscape research and practice. While the first harmonization efforts in soundscape studies started more than a decade ago, soundscape theory per se could still be considered at an early stage of development for many aspects. If consensus has been found on some basic definitions and frameworks, there is still a lot of debate around methodological approaches, as well as theoretical models underpinning the soundscape concept itself, and how it relates to human psychology and physiology. Thus, contributions to this particular research strand were particularly welcome to advance the scientific conversation on these issues. Chen and Ma synthesized data from semi-structured interviews with 75 participants using a Grounded Theory approach and proposed a conceptual model to define and characterize healthy acoustic environments. Fiebig et al. proposed a conceptual paper about the application of emotion theory to soundscape studies. Their analysis revolves around three main themes, namely: the effect that the acting of collecting soundscape itself can have on people's emotional response to an acoustic environment; whether the affective qualities of a soundscape are actually consciously accessible to people in the first place; and whether it is possible for people to separate the emotion related to a sound environment from affective predisposition. Lionello et al. worked on a large-scale soundscape survey dataset collected in accordance with the ISO/TS 12913-2:2018 and explored how people interpret the Likert scale metrics associated with that soundscape data collection instrument in psychometric terms. On the one hand, many aspects of the negative influence of noise on people's health and well-being are well-established through research over the past several decades. For example, sustained exposure to noise near airports or high-density road traffic, even at levels well within legal regulations, has been linked to higher incidence of a range of cardiac illnesses, and overly reverberant classrooms blur phoneme perception and slow down children's learning of language. This knowledge and concerted efforts to enforce regulations have gradually come to influence urban planning (European Parliament and Council, 2002) and construction (Department for Education, 2003). On the other hand, positive effects of sound and soundscape have only more recently moved into focus (Aletta et al., 2018). This is investigated in four articles of the Research Topic. Zhou et al. conducted an experiment with 70 hospital inpatients. Participants listened to soundscape and music recordings through a virtual reality headset, and the researchers measured physiological markers on psychological stress recovery. Using a similar experimental setup, Benfield et al. presented...

ACS Style

Francesco Aletta; Bert De Coensel; PerMagnus Lindborg. Editorial: Human Perception of Environmental Sounds. Frontiers in Psychology 2021, 12, 1 .

AMA Style

Francesco Aletta, Bert De Coensel, PerMagnus Lindborg. Editorial: Human Perception of Environmental Sounds. Frontiers in Psychology. 2021; 12 ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Francesco Aletta; Bert De Coensel; PerMagnus Lindborg. 2021. "Editorial: Human Perception of Environmental Sounds." Frontiers in Psychology 12, no. : 1.

Conference report
Published: 24 May 2021 in Proceedings
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Following the successful first Urban Sound Symposium held at Ghent University in 2019, the second edition in 2021 had to face the challenges of the pandemic. The symposium turned this challenge into an opportunity for giving easier access to practitioners and experts from around the globe who are confronted with urban sound in their professional activities. It was organized simultaneously in Ghent, Montreal, Nantes, Zurich, London and Berlin by researchers at Ghent University, Mc Gill University, Université Gustave Eiffel, EMPA, University College London and TU Berlin. The online event created opportunities for interaction between participants at poster-booths, virtual coffee tables, and included social activities.

ACS Style

Dick Botteldooren; Timothy Van Renterghem; Catherine Guastavino; Arnaud Can; André Fiebig; Jean-Marc Wunderli; Jian Kang; Francesco Aletta. Abstracts of the Second Urban Sound Symposium. Proceedings 2021, 72, 4 .

AMA Style

Dick Botteldooren, Timothy Van Renterghem, Catherine Guastavino, Arnaud Can, André Fiebig, Jean-Marc Wunderli, Jian Kang, Francesco Aletta. Abstracts of the Second Urban Sound Symposium. Proceedings. 2021; 72 (1):4.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Dick Botteldooren; Timothy Van Renterghem; Catherine Guastavino; Arnaud Can; André Fiebig; Jean-Marc Wunderli; Jian Kang; Francesco Aletta. 2021. "Abstracts of the Second Urban Sound Symposium." Proceedings 72, no. 1: 4.

Journal article
Published: 21 May 2021 in Sustainability
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The recent development and deployment of Wireless Acoustic Sensor Networks (WASN) present new ways to address urban acoustic challenges in a smart city context. A focus on improving quality of life forms the core of smart-city design paradigms and cannot be limited to simply measuring objective environmental factors, but should also consider the perceptual, psychological and health impacts on citizens. This study therefore makes use of short (1–2.7 s) recordings sourced from a WASN in Milan which were grouped into various environmental sound source types and given an annoyance rating via an online survey with N=100 participants. A multilevel psychoacoustic model was found to achieve an overall R2=0.64 which incorporates Sharpness as a fixed effect regardless of the sound source type and Roughness, Impulsiveness and Tonality as random effects whose coefficients vary depending on the sound source. These results present a promising step toward implementing an on-sensor annoyance model which incorporates psychoacoustic features and sound source type, and is ultimately not dependent on sound level.

ACS Style

Ferran Orga; Andrew Mitchell; Marc Freixes; Francesco Aletta; Rosa Alsina-Pagès; Maria Foraster. Multilevel Annoyance Modelling of Short Environmental Sound Recordings. Sustainability 2021, 13, 5779 .

AMA Style

Ferran Orga, Andrew Mitchell, Marc Freixes, Francesco Aletta, Rosa Alsina-Pagès, Maria Foraster. Multilevel Annoyance Modelling of Short Environmental Sound Recordings. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (11):5779.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ferran Orga; Andrew Mitchell; Marc Freixes; Francesco Aletta; Rosa Alsina-Pagès; Maria Foraster. 2021. "Multilevel Annoyance Modelling of Short Environmental Sound Recordings." Sustainability 13, no. 11: 5779.

Journal article
Published: 09 May 2021 in Sustainability
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The deployment of measures to mitigate sound during propagation outdoors is most often a compromise between the acoustic design, practical limitations, and visual preferences regarding the landscape. The current study of a raised berm next to a highway shows a number of common issues like the impact of the limited length of the noise shielding device, initially non-dominant sounds becoming noticeable, local drops in efficiency when the barrier is not fully continuous, and overall limited abatement efficiencies. Detailed assessments of both the objective and subjective effect of the intervention, both before and after the intervention was deployed, using the same methodology, showed that especially the more noise sensitive persons benefit from the noise abatement. Reducing the highest exposure levels did not result anymore in a different perception compared to more noise insensitive persons. People do react to spatial variation in exposure and abatement efficiency. Although level reductions might not be excessive in many real-life complex multi-source situations, they do improve the perception of the acoustic environment in the public space.

ACS Style

Timothy Van Renterghem; Francesco Aletta; Dick Botteldooren. Changes in the Soundscape of the Public Space Close to a Highway by a Noise Control Intervention. Sustainability 2021, 13, 5284 .

AMA Style

Timothy Van Renterghem, Francesco Aletta, Dick Botteldooren. Changes in the Soundscape of the Public Space Close to a Highway by a Noise Control Intervention. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (9):5284.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Timothy Van Renterghem; Francesco Aletta; Dick Botteldooren. 2021. "Changes in the Soundscape of the Public Space Close to a Highway by a Noise Control Intervention." Sustainability 13, no. 9: 5284.

Review
Published: 21 April 2021 in Applied Sciences
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Sound environments in large public buildings are likely to be different from those of performance spaces, as well as those not specifically designed for acoustic “performance”, but where sounds still play an important role because of the function they can promote (or disrupt). The aim of this study was identifying common strategies and empirical approaches researchers have been implementing for these acoustically complex enclosures and to provide some methodological indications for future studies on the topic. Studies conducted in three building types for crowd transit, such as museums/exhibition spaces, shopping malls, and transportation hubs/stations, which were collecting data about either physical outcomes or individual responses for such sound environments, were selected. The Scopus databases were searched for peer-reviewed journal papers published in English without time limitations. An additional manual search was performed on the reference lists of the retrieved items. The general consideration on inclusion was to meet the requirement that the case belonged to the three building types, and then the specific inclusion criteria were: (1) including at least an objective acoustic measure of the space; or (2) including at least a subjective measure of the space. The search returned 1060 results; after removing duplicates, two authors screened titles and abstracts and selected 117 papers for further analysis. Twenty-six studies were eventually included. Due to the limited number of items and differences in measures across studies, a quantitative meta-analysis could not be performed, and a qualitative approach was adopted instead. The most commonly used objective measures were SPL, and more specifically often considered as L Aeq, and T. The intervals across studies were currently of inconsistency, and the selection is recommended to take space scale factor into account. The used subjective measures can be classified into four categories as annoyance, affective quality, room-acoustic quality, and acoustic spatiality. Four basic perceptual assessments concerning dynamic contents are accordingly suggested as “annoying-not annoying”, “crowded-uncrowded”, “long-short (reverberation)”, and “far away-nearby”. The other descriptors can be project-specific. The methodologies involve measurement, questionnaire/interview, listening test, and software simulation. It is necessary for the former two to consider temporal and spatial features of such spaces, and the adoption of the latter two will lead to better understanding of users’ exposure in such spaces, e.g., acoustic sequences and user amount. The outputs of investigations inform that background noise level, e.g., 90 dB in museum/exhibition spaces, and sound reverberation, e.g., 4.0 to 5.0 s in shopping malls and transportation hubs/station, are of fundamental importance to the design of such spaces. Sufficient acoustic comfort can be achieved with integrated design of indoor soundscape.

ACS Style

Tingting Yang; Francesco Aletta; Jian Kang. Sound Environments in Large Public Buildings for Crowd Transit: A Systematic Review. Applied Sciences 2021, 11, 3728 .

AMA Style

Tingting Yang, Francesco Aletta, Jian Kang. Sound Environments in Large Public Buildings for Crowd Transit: A Systematic Review. Applied Sciences. 2021; 11 (9):3728.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Tingting Yang; Francesco Aletta; Jian Kang. 2021. "Sound Environments in Large Public Buildings for Crowd Transit: A Systematic Review." Applied Sciences 11, no. 9: 3728.

Original research article
Published: 22 January 2021 in Frontiers in Psychology
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Likert scales are useful for collecting data on attitudes and perceptions from large samples of people. In particular, they have become a well-established tool in soundscape studies for conducting in situ surveys to determine how people experience urban public spaces. However, it is still unclear whether the metrics of the scales are consistently interpreted during a typical assessment task. The current work aims at identifying some general trends in the interpretation of Likert scale metrics and introducing a procedure for the derivation of metric corrections by analyzing a case study dataset of 984 soundscape assessments across 11 urban locations in London. According to ISO/TS 12913-2:2018, soundscapes can be assessed through the scaling of 8 dimensions: pleasant, annoying, vibrant, monotonous, eventful, uneventful, calm, and chaotic. The hypothesis underlying this study is that a link exists between correlations across the percentage of assessments falling in each Likert scale category and a dilation/compression factor affecting the interpretation of the scales metric. The outcome of this metric correction value derivation is introduced for soundscape, and a new projection of the London soundscapes according to the corrected circumplex space is compared with the initial ISO circumplex space. The overall results show a general non-equidistant interpretation of the scales, particularly on the vibrant-monotonous direction. The implications of this correction have been demonstrated through a Linear Ridge Classifier task for predicting the London soundscape responses using objective acoustic parameters, which shows significant improvement when applied to the corrected data. The results suggest that the corrected values account for the non-equidistant interpretation of the Likert metrics, thereby allowing mathematical operations to be viable when applied to the data.

ACS Style

Matteo Lionello; Francesco Aletta; Andrew Mitchell; Jian Kang. Introducing a Method for Intervals Correction on Multiple Likert Scales: A Case Study on an Urban Soundscape Data Collection Instrument. Frontiers in Psychology 2021, 11, 1 .

AMA Style

Matteo Lionello, Francesco Aletta, Andrew Mitchell, Jian Kang. Introducing a Method for Intervals Correction on Multiple Likert Scales: A Case Study on an Urban Soundscape Data Collection Instrument. Frontiers in Psychology. 2021; 11 ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Matteo Lionello; Francesco Aletta; Andrew Mitchell; Jian Kang. 2021. "Introducing a Method for Intervals Correction on Multiple Likert Scales: A Case Study on an Urban Soundscape Data Collection Instrument." Frontiers in Psychology 11, no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 15 January 2021 in Atmosphere
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Hospitals are controlled yet complex ecosystems which provide a therapeutic environment that promotes healing, wellbeing and work efficiency for patients and staff. As these buildings accommodate the sick and vulnerable, occupant wellbeing and good indoor environmental quality (IEQ) that deals with indoor air quality (IAQ), thermal comfort, lighting and acoustics are important objectives. As the specialist nature of hospital function demands highly controlled indoor environments, this makes them energy intensive buildings due to the complex and varying specifications for their functions and operations. This paper reports on a holistic building performance evaluation covering aspects of indoor air quality, thermal comfort, lighting, acoustics, and energy use. It assesses the performance issues and inter-relationships between IEQ and energy in a new building on a hospital campus in the city of Bristol, United Kingdom. The empirical evidence collated from this case study and the feedback received from the hospital staff help identify the endemic issues and constraints related to hospital buildings, such as the need for robust ventilation strategies in hospitals in urban areas that mitigate the effect of indoor and outdoor air pollution and ensuring the use of planned new low-carbon technologies. Whilst the existing guidelines for building design provide useful instructions for the protection of hospital buildings against ingress of particulate matter from outdoors, more advanced filtration strategies may be required to enact chemical reactions required to control the concentration levels of pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and benzene. Further lessons for improved performance in operation and maintenance of hospitals are highlighted. These include ensuring that the increasingly available metering and monitoring data in new buildings, through building management systems, is used for efficient and optimal building operations for better IEQ and energy management. Overall, the study highlights the need for an integrated and holistic approach to building performance to ensure that healthy environments are provided while energy efficiency targets are met.

ACS Style

Nishesh Jain; Esfand Burman; Samuel Stamp; Clive Shrubsole; Roderic Bunn; Tin Oberman; Edward Barrett; Francesco Aletta; Jian Kang; Peter Raynham; Dejan Mumovic; Mike Davies. Building Performance Evaluation of a New Hospital Building in the UK: Balancing Indoor Environmental Quality and Energy Performance. Atmosphere 2021, 12, 115 .

AMA Style

Nishesh Jain, Esfand Burman, Samuel Stamp, Clive Shrubsole, Roderic Bunn, Tin Oberman, Edward Barrett, Francesco Aletta, Jian Kang, Peter Raynham, Dejan Mumovic, Mike Davies. Building Performance Evaluation of a New Hospital Building in the UK: Balancing Indoor Environmental Quality and Energy Performance. Atmosphere. 2021; 12 (1):115.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nishesh Jain; Esfand Burman; Samuel Stamp; Clive Shrubsole; Roderic Bunn; Tin Oberman; Edward Barrett; Francesco Aletta; Jian Kang; Peter Raynham; Dejan Mumovic; Mike Davies. 2021. "Building Performance Evaluation of a New Hospital Building in the UK: Balancing Indoor Environmental Quality and Energy Performance." Atmosphere 12, no. 1: 115.

Journal article
Published: 01 January 2021 in Noise Mapping
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Exceptional circumstances in the city of Granada due to the COVID-19 lockdown have provided the opportunity to characterise the impact of humans on its urban acoustic climate. Traditional environmental noise management and urban sound planning usually take into account noise sources in the city, such as industrial activities or road traffic noise, in model estimations, as well as in empirical research. But trying to isolate human impact by itself, human activity including social activity, walking, talking or just going around the city, has always been a difficult or even impossible task. The COVID-19 lockdown measures have provided the opportunity to study urban climate as never before, affected just by natural or animal noise sources. Previous soundscape research at some iconic sites in the city of Granada carried out in 2019 before the lockdown and a special measuring campaign carried out at the same locations during the lockdown in 2020 offered valuable information on sound levels and local characteristics in order to carry out this comparison. Results show a great change in environmental noise levels that is interesting not only because of its magnitude, but also for its implications, especially at those sites where social human activity was an identifying characteristic. Natural or animal sounds became surprisingly evident at some study sites, especially where road traffic noise dramatically decreased, leading to significantly lower background noise levels. Important spectral changes are observed before and during the lockdown, suggesting a shift from anthropic to animal sources in the acoustic environment.

ACS Style

Jerónimo Vida Manzano; José Antonio Almagro Pastor; Rafael García Quesada; Francesco Aletta; Tin Oberman; Andrew Mitchell; Jian Kang. The “sound of silence” in Granada during the COVID-19 lockdown. Noise Mapping 2021, 8, 16 -31.

AMA Style

Jerónimo Vida Manzano, José Antonio Almagro Pastor, Rafael García Quesada, Francesco Aletta, Tin Oberman, Andrew Mitchell, Jian Kang. The “sound of silence” in Granada during the COVID-19 lockdown. Noise Mapping. 2021; 8 (1):16-31.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jerónimo Vida Manzano; José Antonio Almagro Pastor; Rafael García Quesada; Francesco Aletta; Tin Oberman; Andrew Mitchell; Jian Kang. 2021. "The “sound of silence” in Granada during the COVID-19 lockdown." Noise Mapping 8, no. 1: 16-31.

Review
Published: 25 December 2020 in Acoustics
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Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) is a simulated technology used to deliver multisensory information to people under different environmental conditions. When IVR is generally applied in urban planning and soundscape research, it reveals attractive possibilities for the assessment of urban sound environments with higher immersion for human participation. In virtual sound environments, various topics and measures are designed to collect subjective responses from participants under simulated laboratory conditions. Soundscape or noise assessment studies during virtual experiences adopt an evaluation approach similar to in situ methods. This paper aims to review the approaches that are utilized to assess the ecological validity of IVR for the perception of urban sound environments and the necessary technologies during audio–visual reproduction to establish a dynamic IVR experience that ensures ecological validity. The review shows that, through the use of laboratory tests including subjective response surveys, cognitive performance tests and physiological responses, the ecological validity of IVR can be assessed for the perception of urban sound environments. The reproduction system with head-tracking functions synchronizing spatial audio and visual stimuli (e.g., head-mounted displays (HMDs) with first-order Ambisonics (FOA)-tracked binaural playback) represents the prevailing trend to achieve high ecological validity. These studies potentially contribute to the outcomes of a normalized evaluation framework for subjective soundscape and noise assessments in virtual environments.

ACS Style

Chunyang Xu; Tin Oberman; Francesco Aletta; Huan Tong; Jian Kang. Ecological Validity of Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) Techniques for the Perception of Urban Sound Environments. Acoustics 2020, 3, 11 -24.

AMA Style

Chunyang Xu, Tin Oberman, Francesco Aletta, Huan Tong, Jian Kang. Ecological Validity of Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) Techniques for the Perception of Urban Sound Environments. Acoustics. 2020; 3 (1):11-24.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Chunyang Xu; Tin Oberman; Francesco Aletta; Huan Tong; Jian Kang. 2020. "Ecological Validity of Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) Techniques for the Perception of Urban Sound Environments." Acoustics 3, no. 1: 11-24.

Editorial
Published: 24 December 2020 in Acoustics
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Acoustics (ISSN 2624-599X) is an open access peer-reviewed journal published quarterly online by MDPI

ACS Style

Jian Kang; Francesco Aletta. Acoustics: First 100 Papers Published. Acoustics 2020, 3, 1 -2.

AMA Style

Jian Kang, Francesco Aletta. Acoustics: First 100 Papers Published. Acoustics. 2020; 3 (1):1-2.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jian Kang; Francesco Aletta. 2020. "Acoustics: First 100 Papers Published." Acoustics 3, no. 1: 1-2.

Preprint content
Published: 17 October 2020
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Soundscape studies aim to consider the holistic human perception of a sound environment, including both the physical phenomena and how these are mediated by internal factors: the mechanisms underpinning the interactions between these two aspects are not well understood. This study aims to assess the influence of psychological well-being and demographic factors including age, gender, occupation status, and education levels on the dimensions of the soundscape circumplex, i.e., Pleasantness and Eventfulness. Data was collected in eleven urban locations in London through a large-scale (N=1134) soundscape survey according to the ISO 12913-2 technical specifications and incorporating the WHO-5 well-being index. Linear mixed-effects modelling applying backwards-step feature selection was used to model the interactions between internal factors including psychological well-being, age, gender, occupation status, education levels and the soundscape Pleasantness and Eventfulness, while accounting for the random effects of the survey location. The findings suggest that internal factors account for approximately 1.4% of the variance for Pleasantness and 3.9% for Eventfulness, while the influence of the locations accounted for approximately 34% and 14%, respectively. Psychological well-being is positively associated with perceived Pleasantness, while there is a negative association with Eventfulness only for males. Occupation status, in particular retirement as a proxy of age and gender, was identified as a significant factor for both dimensions. These findings offer empirical grounds for developing theories of the interaction between internal factors and soundscape formation whilst highlighting the importance of the location, namely: the context.

ACS Style

Mercede Erfanian; Andrew Mitchell; Francesco Aletta; Jian Kang. Psychological Well-being and Demographic Factors can Mediate Soundscape Pleasantness and Eventfulness: A large sample study. 2020, 1 .

AMA Style

Mercede Erfanian, Andrew Mitchell, Francesco Aletta, Jian Kang. Psychological Well-being and Demographic Factors can Mediate Soundscape Pleasantness and Eventfulness: A large sample study. . 2020; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mercede Erfanian; Andrew Mitchell; Francesco Aletta; Jian Kang. 2020. "Psychological Well-being and Demographic Factors can Mediate Soundscape Pleasantness and Eventfulness: A large sample study." , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 15 August 2020 in Applied Sciences
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The emerging field of archaeoacoustics is attracting increasing research attention from scholars of different disciplines: the investigation of the acoustic features of ancient open-air theatres is possibly one of its main themes. In this paper, the outcomes of a measurement campaign of acoustical parameters in accordance with ISO 3382-1 in the ancient theatre of Tyndaris (Sicily) are presented and compared with datasets from other sites. Two sound sources were used (firecrackers and dodecahedron) and their differences were analysed. A very good reproducibility has been shown between the two measurement chains, with differences on average of 0.01 s for reverberation time T20, and less than 0.3 dB for Clarity C50 and C80 and for sound strength. In general, results show that the reverberation time and strength of sound values are relatively low when compared with other theatres because of the lack of the original architectural element of the scaenae frons. When combining this effect with the obvious condition of an unroofed space, issues emerge in terms of applicability of the protocols recommended in the ISO standard. This raises the question of whether different room acoustics parameters should be used to characterise open-air ancient theatres.

ACS Style

Arianna Astolfi; Elena Bo; Francesco Aletta; Louena Shtrepi. Measurements of Acoustical Parameters in the Ancient Open-Air Theatre of Tyndaris (Sicily, Italy). Applied Sciences 2020, 10, 5680 .

AMA Style

Arianna Astolfi, Elena Bo, Francesco Aletta, Louena Shtrepi. Measurements of Acoustical Parameters in the Ancient Open-Air Theatre of Tyndaris (Sicily, Italy). Applied Sciences. 2020; 10 (16):5680.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Arianna Astolfi; Elena Bo; Francesco Aletta; Louena Shtrepi. 2020. "Measurements of Acoustical Parameters in the Ancient Open-Air Theatre of Tyndaris (Sicily, Italy)." Applied Sciences 10, no. 16: 5680.

Journal article
Published: 07 August 2020 in Noise Mapping
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The implementation of lockdown measures due to the COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in wide-ranging social and environmental implications. Among the environmental impacts is a decrease in urban noise levels which has so far been observed at the city scale via noise mapping efforts conducted through the framework of the Environmental Noise Directive. This study aims to understand how lockdown measures have manifested at a local level to better determine how the person-level experience of the urban soundscape has been affected and how these affects differ across urban space typologies. Taking London as a case study, a series of 30-second binaural recordings were taken at 11 locations representing a cross-section of urban public spaces with varying compositions of sound sources during Spring 2019 (pre-lockdown, N = 620) and Spring 2020 (during-lockdown, N = 481). Five acoustic and psychoacoustic metrics (LAeq, LA10, LA90, Loudness, Sharpness) were calculated for each recording and their changes from the pre-lockdown scenario to the lockdown scenario are investigated. Clustering analysis was performed which grouped the locations into 3 types of urban settings based on their acoustic characteristics. An average reduction of 5.4 dB (LAeq) was observed, however significant differences in the degree of reduction were found across the locations, ranging from a 10.7 dB to a 1.2 dB reduction. This study confirms the general reduction in noise levels due to the nationally imposed lockdown measures, identifies trends which vary depending on the urban context and discusses the implications for the limits of urban noise reduction.

ACS Style

Francesco Aletta; Tin Oberman; Andrew Mitchell; Huan Tong; Jian Kang. Assessing the changing urban sound environment during the COVID-19 lockdown period using short-term acoustic measurements. Noise Mapping 2020, 7, 123 -134.

AMA Style

Francesco Aletta, Tin Oberman, Andrew Mitchell, Huan Tong, Jian Kang. Assessing the changing urban sound environment during the COVID-19 lockdown period using short-term acoustic measurements. Noise Mapping. 2020; 7 (1):123-134.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Francesco Aletta; Tin Oberman; Andrew Mitchell; Huan Tong; Jian Kang. 2020. "Assessing the changing urban sound environment during the COVID-19 lockdown period using short-term acoustic measurements." Noise Mapping 7, no. 1: 123-134.

Journal article
Published: 03 August 2020 in Noise Mapping
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This study presents the result of a traffic simulation analysis based on Floating Car Data and a noise emission assessment to show the impact of mobility restriction for COVID-19 containment on urban vehicular traffic and road noise pollution on the road network of Rome, Italy. The adoption of strong and severe measures to contain the spreading of Coronavirus during March-April 2020 generated a significant reduction in private vehicle trips in the city of Rome (-64.6% during the lockdown). Traffic volumes, obtained through a simulation approach, were used as input parameters for a noise emission assessment conducted using the CNOSSOS-EU method, and an overall noise emissions reduction on the entire road network was found, even if its extent varied between road types.

ACS Style

Francesco Aletta; Stefano Brinchi; Stefano Carrese; Andrea Gemma; Claudia Guattari; Livia Mannini; Sergio Maria Patella. Analysing urban traffic volumes and mapping noise emissions in Rome (Italy) in the context of containment measures for the COVID-19 disease. Noise Mapping 2020, 7, 114 -122.

AMA Style

Francesco Aletta, Stefano Brinchi, Stefano Carrese, Andrea Gemma, Claudia Guattari, Livia Mannini, Sergio Maria Patella. Analysing urban traffic volumes and mapping noise emissions in Rome (Italy) in the context of containment measures for the COVID-19 disease. Noise Mapping. 2020; 7 (1):114-122.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Francesco Aletta; Stefano Brinchi; Stefano Carrese; Andrea Gemma; Claudia Guattari; Livia Mannini; Sergio Maria Patella. 2020. "Analysing urban traffic volumes and mapping noise emissions in Rome (Italy) in the context of containment measures for the COVID-19 disease." Noise Mapping 7, no. 1: 114-122.

Journal article
Published: 28 July 2020 in Sustainability
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The focus of the building industry and research is shifting from delivering satisfactory spaces to going beyond what is merely acceptable with a wave of new research and practice dedicated to exploring how the built environment can support task performance and enhance people’s health and well-being. The present study addresses the role of acoustics in this paradigm shift. Indoor soundscape research has recently emerged as an approach that brings a perceptual perspective on building and room acoustics in order to shape built environments that “sound good” according to building occupants’ preference and needs. This paper establishes an initial discussion over some of the open questions in this field of research that is still in an embryonic stage. A thematic analysis of structured interviews with a panel of experts offered a range of perspectives on the characterization, management, and design of indoor soundscapes and health-related outcomes. The discussion pointed out the importance of both perceptual and multisensory research and integrated participatory design practices to enable a holistic view regarding the complex building–user interrelations and the design of just cities. Soundscape methodologies tailored to the peculiarities of indoor soundscapes can help to measure and predict the human perceptual response to the acoustic stimuli in context, thus reducing the risk of mismatches between expected and real building experiences. This perceptual perspective is expected to widen the scientific evidence for the negative and positive impacts of the acoustic environment on human health, well-being, and quality of life. This will support prioritizing the role of acoustics in building design and challenge many current design practices that are based on a noise control approach.

ACS Style

Simone Torresin; Francesco Aletta; Francesco Babich; Ethan Bourdeau; Jack Harvie-Clark; Jian Kang; Lisa Lavia; Antonella Radicchi; Rossano Albatici. Acoustics for Supportive and Healthy Buildings: Emerging Themes on Indoor Soundscape Research. Sustainability 2020, 12, 6054 .

AMA Style

Simone Torresin, Francesco Aletta, Francesco Babich, Ethan Bourdeau, Jack Harvie-Clark, Jian Kang, Lisa Lavia, Antonella Radicchi, Rossano Albatici. Acoustics for Supportive and Healthy Buildings: Emerging Themes on Indoor Soundscape Research. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (15):6054.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Simone Torresin; Francesco Aletta; Francesco Babich; Ethan Bourdeau; Jack Harvie-Clark; Jian Kang; Lisa Lavia; Antonella Radicchi; Rossano Albatici. 2020. "Acoustics for Supportive and Healthy Buildings: Emerging Themes on Indoor Soundscape Research." Sustainability 12, no. 15: 6054.

Journal article
Published: 27 July 2020 in Building and Environment
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Models of perceived affective quality of soundscapes have been recently included into standards to guide the measurement and improvement of urban soundscapes. Such models have been developed in outdoor contexts and their validity in indoor built environments is unclear. A laboratory listening test was performed in a mock-up living room with a window sight, in order to develop an indoor soundscape model for residential buildings. During the test, 35 participants were asked to rate 20 different scenarios each. Scenarios were defined by combining four indoor sound sources and five urban environments, filtered through a window ajar, on 97 attribute scales. By applying principal component analysis, Comfort, Content, and Familiarity, were extracted as the main perceptual dimensions explaining respectively 58%, 25% and 7% of the total variance. Relationships between the principal component scores, acoustic parameters and indoor and outdoor sound categories were investigated. Comfort, Content, and Familiarity were found to be better predicted respectively by loudness N10, level variability LA10-LA90 and sharpness S. The magnitude of linear-mixed-effect model predictions sensibly improved by accounting for sound categories, thus pointing at the importance of semantic meaning of sounds in indoor soundscape assessment. A measurement system is proposed, based on a 2-D space defined by two orthogonal axes, Comfort and Content, and two additional axes, Engagement and Privacy – Control, rotated 45° on the same plane. The model indicates the perceptual constructs to be measured (e.g. in post-occupancy evaluations), the attribute scales to be employed and actions to improve indoor soundscape quality, thus providing a reference for both research and practice.

ACS Style

Simone Torresin; Rossano Albatici; Francesco Aletta; Francesco Babich; Tin Oberman; Stefano Siboni; Jian Kang. Indoor soundscape assessment: A principal components model of acoustic perception in residential buildings. Building and Environment 2020, 182, 107152 .

AMA Style

Simone Torresin, Rossano Albatici, Francesco Aletta, Francesco Babich, Tin Oberman, Stefano Siboni, Jian Kang. Indoor soundscape assessment: A principal components model of acoustic perception in residential buildings. Building and Environment. 2020; 182 ():107152.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Simone Torresin; Rossano Albatici; Francesco Aletta; Francesco Babich; Tin Oberman; Stefano Siboni; Jian Kang. 2020. "Indoor soundscape assessment: A principal components model of acoustic perception in residential buildings." Building and Environment 182, no. : 107152.

Review
Published: 17 July 2020 in Applied Acoustics
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A systematic review for soundscape modelling methods is presented. The methods for developing soundscape models are hereby questioned by investigating the following aspects: data acquisition methods, indicators used as predictors of descriptors in the models, descriptors targeted as output of the models, linear rather than non-linear model fitting, and overall performances. The inclusion criteria for the reviewed studies were: models dealing with soundscape dimensions aligned with the definitions provided in the ISO 12913 series; models based on soundscape data sampled at least at two different locations and using at least two variables as indicators. The Scopus database was queried. Biases on papers selection were considered and those related to the methods are discussed in the current study. Out of 256 results from Scopus, 22 studies were selected. Two studies were included from the references among the results. The data extraction from the 24 studies includes: data collection methods, input and output for the models, and model performance. Three main data collection methods were found. Several studies focus on the different combination of indicators among physical measurements, perceptual evaluations, temporal dynamics, demographic and psychological information, context information and visual amenity. The descriptors considered across the studies include: acoustic comfort, valence, arousal, calmness, chaoticness, sound quality, tranquillity, and vibrancy. The interpretation of the results is limited by the large variety of methods, and the large number of parameters in spite of a limited amount of studies obtained from the query. However, perceptual indicators, visual and contextual indicators, as well as time dynamic embedding, overall provide a better prediction of soundscape. Finally, although the compared performance between linear and non-linear methods does not show remarkable differences, non-linear methods might still represent a more suitable choice in models where complex structures of indicators are used.

ACS Style

Matteo Lionello; Francesco Aletta; Jian Kang. A systematic review of prediction models for the experience of urban soundscapes. Applied Acoustics 2020, 170, 107479 .

AMA Style

Matteo Lionello, Francesco Aletta, Jian Kang. A systematic review of prediction models for the experience of urban soundscapes. Applied Acoustics. 2020; 170 ():107479.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Matteo Lionello; Francesco Aletta; Jian Kang. 2020. "A systematic review of prediction models for the experience of urban soundscapes." Applied Acoustics 170, no. : 107479.

Journal article
Published: 19 June 2020 in Applied Sciences
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Acoustic comfort is becoming an increasingly important dimension for practitioners in the context of design of care facilities for older adults, namely nursing homes. Defining the quality of these spaces based on room acoustics criteria alone might be challenging if aspects related to their functioning (e.g., speech-based activities) are not taken into account. The acoustical capacity concept has been previously proposed for eating establishments as a way to provide a quality assessment based on both physical characteristics of the space and the perceived quality of verbal communication. In this study, a revised version of a prediction model for ambient noise levels based on occupancy and an estimation of acoustical capacity are proposed for nursing homes hosting people with dementia, and the corresponding parameters of slope, group size and absorption per person are optimized for the specific application, using a Nursing Home in Flanders (Belgium) participating to the AcustiCare project as case study. Results show that, compared to normal eating establishments, lower absorption per person values and higher group size values should be used in nursing homes to reduce errors in ambient noise levels prediction. Furthermore, using a retrofit intervention carried out in the living room of the Nursing Home, the enhanced acoustical capacity of the space was analysed. Results, in this case, show that, prior to the retrofit intervention, the acoustical capacity was already exceeded with average occupancy (i.e., saturated in normal functioning conditions), while the reduction in reverberation time achieved with the retrofit increased considerably the acoustical capacity of the space, shifting the quality of verbal communication in the living room from insufficient to satisfactory.

ACS Style

Paul Devos; Francesco Aletta; Pieter Thomas; Tara Vander Mynsbrugge; Mirko Petrovic; Dominique Van De Velde; Patricia De Vriendt; Dick Botteldooren. Application of a Prediction Model for Ambient Noise Levels and Acoustical Capacity for Living Rooms in Nursing Homes Hosting Older People with Dementia. Applied Sciences 2020, 10, 4205 .

AMA Style

Paul Devos, Francesco Aletta, Pieter Thomas, Tara Vander Mynsbrugge, Mirko Petrovic, Dominique Van De Velde, Patricia De Vriendt, Dick Botteldooren. Application of a Prediction Model for Ambient Noise Levels and Acoustical Capacity for Living Rooms in Nursing Homes Hosting Older People with Dementia. Applied Sciences. 2020; 10 (12):4205.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Paul Devos; Francesco Aletta; Pieter Thomas; Tara Vander Mynsbrugge; Mirko Petrovic; Dominique Van De Velde; Patricia De Vriendt; Dick Botteldooren. 2020. "Application of a Prediction Model for Ambient Noise Levels and Acoustical Capacity for Living Rooms in Nursing Homes Hosting Older People with Dementia." Applied Sciences 10, no. 12: 4205.

Journal article
Published: 12 May 2020 in UCL Open Environment
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ACS Style

Francesco Aletta; Dan Osborn; Daniel Osborn. The COVID-19 global challenge and its implications for the environment – what we are learning. UCL Open Environment 2020, 2, 1 .

AMA Style

Francesco Aletta, Dan Osborn, Daniel Osborn. The COVID-19 global challenge and its implications for the environment – what we are learning. UCL Open Environment. 2020; 2 (1):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Francesco Aletta; Dan Osborn; Daniel Osborn. 2020. "The COVID-19 global challenge and its implications for the environment – what we are learning." UCL Open Environment 2, no. 1: 1.