Preservation Model And Method Of Urban Soundscape

Sound environment is a very important aspect to reflect the characteristics and quality of a city,which cannot be ignored to build a sustainable and resilient city.Unfortunately,with the advancement of urbanization,the urban sound environment is getting worse and worse,and some beautiful sounds in cities are gradually being destroyed.Therefore,how to preserve the sounds with the characteristics of cities and time has become an urgent problem to be solved.The aim of this study was to propose a soundscape preservation model,and put forward suggestions to optimize the urban space from the perspective of soundscape preservation.Based on the example of Tianjin,China,this study was mainly solved the following research questions.Firstly,two field studies were carried out at two stages to explore the types and perception characteristics of urban soundscapes that should be preserved.At stage one,a social survey was conducted to investigate the soundscapes worthy of preservation in the city.At stage two,a group soundscape walk was carried out to explore the characteristics of soundscapes suggested by the respondents at the first stage.Secondly,focus group interviews were carried out to identify the preservation value of urban soundscapes worthy of preservation.Afterwards,data on value characteristic perception were collected for different soundscapes worthy of preservation through a laboratory experiment and the weight of each value was determined.Thirdly,the indicators which could reflect the quality of soundscapes have been ascertained through a laboratory experiment.Fourthly,using the above indicators,a decision tree classification model was established to predict the quality of soundscapes.Finally,it analyzed how to apply the study results to urban spatial environment optimization and soundscape preservation.The following results have been achieved:(1)The urban soundscapes worthy of preservation recommended by the respondents were situated in various locations.Among them,parks and historic districts were the most important urban contexts for these soundscapes;Five principal factors were identified to describe the perception characteristics of the soundscapes worthy of preservation,including relaxation,vibrancy,representativeness,strength and richness.(2)It was found that there were five types of preservation value characterizing the urban soundscapes worthy of preservation,i.e.ecological value,comfortable value,affective value,identifiable value,and practical value.The ecological value was the most important value,followed by comfortable value,identifiable value,practical value and affective value.(3)There were thirteen physical indicators which could reflect the quality of soundscapes worthy of preservation.(4)Based on the above thirteen indicators,a CART decision tree was constructed to classify and predict the soundscape quality,and the prediction accuracy of this model could reach about 65%.(5)Based on the study results,the overall goal of the soundscape’s preservation work and the space optimization strategy of key urban area were proposed.This study established a preliminary model of urban soundscape preservation and put forward some suggestions to optimize the urban sound environment,which not only promoted the in-depth study of soundscape theory,but also played a positive role in improving the image of a city.