Urban parks play an important role in preserving and promoting the health of citizens who are often exposed to noise pollution and the stress of daily life. The present study describes the main results obtained from a survey performed in five urban parks in Milan. Measurements of the acoustic environment were carried out in 29 sites together with interviews with 231 users on certain aspects of the parks not limited to merely sound. Acoustic data show that the surveyed parks mostly do not comply with the noise limit issued by the Italian legislation on protected areas. The unweighted 1/3-octave spectrum centre of gravity G and L_A50 perform satisfactorily in discriminating among the acoustic environments. Such clear distinction was not observed in the subjective ratings on the perceived quality of the soundscape, likely due to the influence by non-acoustic factors that act as mediators in the assessment. This hypothesis is supported by the collected data on the perceived quality of quietness, which was rated worse than that of the soundscape. Comparing acoustic data with ratings, the perceived quality of the total environment was found to be less dependent on L_Aeq than soundscape and quietness.

An experimental study was carried out in 20 squares in the center of Rome, covering a wide range of different uses, sonic environments, geometry, and architectural styles. Soundwalks along the perimeter of each square were performed during daylight and weekdays taking binaural and video recordings, as well as spot measurements of illuminance. The cluster analysis performed on the physical parameters, not only acoustic, provided two clusters that are in satisfactory agreement with the “a priori” classification. Applying the principal component analysis (PCA) to five physical parameters, two main components were obtained which might be associated to two environmental features, namely, “chaotic/calm” and “open/enclosed.” On the basis of these two features, six squares were selected for the laboratory audio-video tests where 32 subjects took part filling in a questionnaire. The PCA performed on the subjective ratings on the sonic environment showed two main components which might be associated to two emotional meanings, namely, “calmness” and “vibrancy.” The linear regression modeling between five objective parameters and the mean value of subjective ratings on chaotic/calm and enclosed/open attributes showed a good correlation. Notwithstanding these interesting results being limited to the specific data set, it is worth pointing out that the complexity of the soundscape quality assessment can be more comprehensively examined merging the field measurements of physical parameters with the subjective ratings provided by field and/or laboratory tests.

High flows of road traffic noise in urban agglomerations can negatively affect the livability of squares and parks located at the neighborhood, district and city levels, therefore pushing anyone who wants to enjoy calmer, quieter areas to move to non-urban parks. Due to the distances between these areas, it is not possible to go as regularly as would be necessary to satisfy any needs. Even if cities are densely populated, the presence of a sea or riverfront offers the possibility of large restorative places, or at least with potential features for being the natural core of an urban nucleus after a renewal intervention. This study evaluates the soundscape of the Naples waterfront, presenting an overview of the most significant visual, acoustic and spatial factors related to the pedestrian areas, as well as areas open to road traffic and others where the road traffic is limited. The factors were chosen with feature selection methods and artificial neural networks. The results show how certain factors, such as the perimeter between the water and promenade, the visibility of the sea or the density of green areas, can affect the perception of the soundscape quality in the areas with road traffic. In the pedestrian areas, acoustic factors, such as loudness or the A-weighted sound level exceeded for 10% of the measurement duration (LA10), influence the perceived quality of the soundscape.

The tourist experience of built environments has received a lot of attention in tourism marketing and management research. Several studies have shown that the environmental qualities of a place can contribute to its aesthetic appreciation and overall expectation of tourists. Such aesthetic qualities, such as cenery and soundscapes, should thus be regarded as key components of tourists’ satisfaction. This study proposes that a soundscape approach could be a suitable tool in tourism management, due to its general purpose of enhancing the users’ experience of a place, taking into account the acoustic dimension of the environment. Within this framework, this paper describes the characterization of the soundscape of a pedestrian tourist route in Sorrento (Italy). For this purpose, a group of acoustics experts, architects, and planners used the soundwalk method to collect recordings and perceptual data about the sound environment along a pre-defined tourist path. The results suggest that the tourists’ perceptual construct is underpinned by both visual and aural elements contributing to soundscape appreciation.

The correlation between exposure to traffic noise and students’ performance and annoyance has been investigated in literature mainly considering the relationship between indoor equivalent A-weighted sound pressure level (L_Aeq) and students’ cognitive impairment. Annoyance is frequently related to the effect of short-duration noise events characterized by high sound pressure levels, such as those due to aircraft fly-over and pass-by of buses, heavy trucks, motorcycles, or street sweepers. These noise events are often described, over specific measurement periods, in terms of maximum A-weighted sound pressure level, L_Amax, or statistical levels, such as L_A1 or L_A10. This aspect is not considered in the noise maps drawn in accordance with the European Environmental Noise Directive, as they provide the L_Aeq only, determined over day, evening, and night periods. In this paper, students’ exposure to road traffic noise is analyzed by means of regression equations obtained by the authors between L_Aeq and A-weighted maximum and statistical levels due to road traffic noise. The traffic noise of 28 urban streets was monitored during the opening period of Italian schools. A method is described to estimate students’ exposure to noise from data made available on noise maps by the municipalities of metropolitan areas. The application of this method to the case study of Florence shows that almost 60% of students from municipal primary and lower secondary schools could be exposed to the maximum sound pressure level (SPL) inside the classroom greater than 55 dB(A) every hour, probably exceeding the typical background noise in classrooms by more than 10 dB.