Evaluation of outdoor environment in preschools using the soundscape approach
(2020) In TVBA-5000 VTAM01 20201Department of Construction Sciences
Engineering Acoustics
- Abstract
- Exposure to high levels of noise may affect a person’s health and behavior. A lot of education in Swedish preschool occurs outdoor, which makes having good sound environment important for the children and the teachers. Today, Swedish preschools use equivalent sound level Leq24h and max sound level Lmax for outdoor sound environment benchmark values. These standardized sound level indicators have shown some limitations in certain sound conditions such as tonal components, multisource environments, or low frequency noise.
During the last couple of years, the soundscape research has seen growth. With information from new research and ISO standards, the soundscape method could prove to be a good complementary to the current standardized... (More) - Exposure to high levels of noise may affect a person’s health and behavior. A lot of education in Swedish preschool occurs outdoor, which makes having good sound environment important for the children and the teachers. Today, Swedish preschools use equivalent sound level Leq24h and max sound level Lmax for outdoor sound environment benchmark values. These standardized sound level indicators have shown some limitations in certain sound conditions such as tonal components, multisource environments, or low frequency noise.
During the last couple of years, the soundscape research has seen growth. With information from new research and ISO standards, the soundscape method could prove to be a good complementary to the current standardized approach.
This master thesis, among other things, examines how soundscape study can improve the outdoor sound environment in preschools and assesses correlation between measurements and the subjective experience of the participants.
Outdoor measurements are conducted in preschools, where educators answer a soundscape questionnaire. The results of the measurements and questionnaires are compiled and analyzed using statistical methods. Psychoacoustic metrics loudness, roughness, sharpness, and fluctuation strength are calculated.
In general, no clear correlation is found between questionnaire answers and the parameters. The highest correlation is found between max loudness Nmax and the perception of natural sound.
Soundscapes can give more tools to distinguish what type of sound environment more easily is perceived as good or bad, which can be used by not only acousticians but also other professions.
With more statistical data better prediction models could be created to predict what type of levels of sharpness, or other indicators, would be necessary to affect how well the sound environment would be perceived. Soundscape method is still however new, especially in terms of standardization and is still being improved upon. (Less) - Popular Abstract
- A lot of education in Swedish preschool occurs outdoor, which makes having good sound environment important for the children and the teachers. The denser the cities get the more difficult it might become to build preschools with good sound environment. Therefore, it might be reasonable to look for other less conventional solutions, such as soundscape. Soundscape is an approach which relies on perception of the sound environment from human experience. With the recent standardization, soundscape method could prove to be a good complementary to current standardized approach.
The purpose of this Master thesis is to investigate the current guidelines for outdoor measurement in preschools, introduce new methods used in previous soundscape... (More) - A lot of education in Swedish preschool occurs outdoor, which makes having good sound environment important for the children and the teachers. The denser the cities get the more difficult it might become to build preschools with good sound environment. Therefore, it might be reasonable to look for other less conventional solutions, such as soundscape. Soundscape is an approach which relies on perception of the sound environment from human experience. With the recent standardization, soundscape method could prove to be a good complementary to current standardized approach.
The purpose of this Master thesis is to investigate the current guidelines for outdoor measurement in preschools, introduce new methods used in previous soundscape studies and the newly published ISO 12913-2:2018 and 12913-2:2019. Questions to be answered are what other parameters could be used together with the standard parameters, how a soundscape study could be used together with standard measurement and if there is any correlation between the subjective perception and the measured data.
This thesis will aim to:
• Examine how a soundscape study can improve the outdoor sound environment in preschools.
• Look to find correlation between measurements and the subjective experience of the participants.
• Discuss current limitations and suggest improvements for future projects and studies.
Results Two-dimensional model and a regression model was created using the measurement data and questionnaire answers. The two-dimensional model showed that most values were found loading on the Pleasant component. The position of the coordinate suggests that that variability of sound might affect the perception of the environment. Higher variability would make the sound environment more exciting, while less variability would make it calmer.
The statistical analysis showed little correlation. The highest correlation was found for the parameter max loudness Nmax and the perception of natural sounds. This correlation was used to create a regression model to help predict what levels of Nmax in sones would be needed to generate higher score in natural sounds. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9022601
- author
- Caban, Semir LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- VTAM01 20201
- year
- 2020
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- Soundscape, statistical analysis, psychoacoustics, outdoor sound environment, sound environment in preschools.
- publication/series
- TVBA-5000
- report number
- TVBA-5062
- ISSN
- 0281-8477
- language
- English
- id
- 9022601
- date added to LUP
- 2020-08-18 13:17:16
- date last changed
- 2020-08-18 13:17:16
@misc{9022601,
abstract = {{Exposure to high levels of noise may affect a person’s health and behavior. A lot of education in Swedish preschool occurs outdoor, which makes having good sound environment important for the children and the teachers. Today, Swedish preschools use equivalent sound level Leq24h and max sound level Lmax for outdoor sound environment benchmark values. These standardized sound level indicators have shown some limitations in certain sound conditions such as tonal components, multisource environments, or low frequency noise.
During the last couple of years, the soundscape research has seen growth. With information from new research and ISO standards, the soundscape method could prove to be a good complementary to the current standardized approach.
This master thesis, among other things, examines how soundscape study can improve the outdoor sound environment in preschools and assesses correlation between measurements and the subjective experience of the participants.
Outdoor measurements are conducted in preschools, where educators answer a soundscape questionnaire. The results of the measurements and questionnaires are compiled and analyzed using statistical methods. Psychoacoustic metrics loudness, roughness, sharpness, and fluctuation strength are calculated.
In general, no clear correlation is found between questionnaire answers and the parameters. The highest correlation is found between max loudness Nmax and the perception of natural sound.
Soundscapes can give more tools to distinguish what type of sound environment more easily is perceived as good or bad, which can be used by not only acousticians but also other professions.
With more statistical data better prediction models could be created to predict what type of levels of sharpness, or other indicators, would be necessary to affect how well the sound environment would be perceived. Soundscape method is still however new, especially in terms of standardization and is still being improved upon.}},
author = {{Caban, Semir}},
issn = {{0281-8477}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
series = {{TVBA-5000}},
title = {{Evaluation of outdoor environment in preschools using the soundscape approach}},
year = {{2020}},
}