Effects of Urban Morphology on Urban Sound Environment from the Perspective of Masking Effects
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Effects of Urban Morphology on Urban Sound Environment from the Perspective of Masking Effects Yiying Hao April 2014 Thesis submitted for the fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture School of Architecture The University of Sheffield i ABSTRACT This study explores how to improve soundscape quality in the context of urban morphology from the perspective of masking effects. Masking in this study is explained as a hearing phenomenon by which soundscape characteristics are altered by the presence of interfering sound event(s). The concept of this study is primarily based on two hypothesises: first, masking effects in soundscape can influence the perception and evaluation of sound environment; second, urban sound propagation has relationships with urban morphological parameters. Diverse sounds from the common urban sound sources are characterised, using acoustic analysis and psychological evaluation, with a consideration of potential masking among them. The masking effects of traffic noise by birdsong are then investigated, showing the differences in the psychological evaluation on the traffic noise environment under different physical conditions, with maximum score differences of 3.9 in the Naturalness, 3.1 in the Annoyance, and 4.0 in the Pleasantness in a scale of 0-10. In view of the results in the psychological evaluation, two main research directions are confirmed, including urban noise attenuation (car traffic and flyover aircraft) and natural sound enhancement (birdsong loudness and the visibility of green areas). The relationships between spatial sound levels and quantitative urban morphological parameters are explored by noise mapping technique and a MATLAB program on spatial sound level matrix. For the traffic noise, it is possible to achieve noise level attenuation of more than 10 dB and reduction of 25% noisy area through the control of the parameters, e.g., the Building Plan Area Fraction, the Complete Aspect Ratio, the Building Frontal Area Index, and the Horizontal Distance of First-row Building to Road. For the flyover ii aircraft noise, a decrease in the Horizontal Distance of First-row Building to Flight Path can result in more than 10 dB noise reduction. For the birdsong, with an increasing Green Area Perimeter, the sound levels in the areas further from the green areas can be increased by up to 11 dB; with an increasing Green Area Dispersion Index, the sound levels can increase by approximately 10 dB. Meanwhile, a site with a lower Building Plan Area Fraction has higher visibility of the green areas, with an increase of Mean Visibility of approximately 600. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I do appreciate the support on the project by the Northern Netherlands Provinces and the funding by the European Union, European Fund for Regional Development and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Peaks in the Delta. I would like to acknowledge and greatly thank my first PhD supervisor, Professor Jian Kang, for his supports, encouragement and academic advice that has led me to complete the Ph.D. I sincerely appreciate my second supervisors and boss from the INCAS3, Dr. Heinrich Wӧertche, for continuous trust and supports during my PhD study. I also deeply appreciate the other boss from the INCAS3, John van Pol, for his kindly and invaluable help when I just started my life in Netherlands. I thank my other colleagues from INCAS3 for supports and interdisciplinary communication. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Johannes D. Krijnders, for helping me collect GIS data and give me useful advices on my PhD study. I would also like to thank Dr. Daniele Dubois for the guidance on psychological evaluation and encouragement on critical thinking. I am grateful to Dr. Francesco Aletta and Like Jiang, for helping with sound recording in Sheffield and setting up the anechoic chamber for listening tests. I am also thankful to the member of Acoustics Group in the University of Sheffield. Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my parents who supported me in all my pursuits. I am also very grateful to my husband for awarding me one of the most important two certificates in my life during my PhD study and fully supporting me to pursue the other. iv CONTENTS ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................... IV CONTENTS .............................................................................................................. V LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................... IX LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... XI LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... XVII CHAPATER 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 1 1.1 Research background .......................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Aims and objectives ............................................................................................................................. 4 1.2.1 Research objectives...................................................................................................................... 4 1.2.2 Research significances ................................................................................................................. 7 1.3 Research methodology overview ........................................................................................................ 7 1.4 Thesis structure .................................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPATER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................. 12 2.1 Soundscape ......................................................................................................................................... 13 2.1.1 Definition and explanation ........................................................................................................ 13 2.1.2 Evaluation of soundscape .......................................................................................................... 14 2.1.3 Design and planning with soundscape approaches ................................................................... 15 2.2 Masking ............................................................................................................................................... 17 2.2.1 Auditory attention ...................................................................................................................... 17 2.2.2 Concepts of auditory masking ................................................................................................... 19 2.2.3 Masking effects .......................................................................................................................... 22 2.3 Masking in soundscape ..................................................................................................................... 25 2.3.1 Cognitive sound sources ............................................................................................................ 25 2.3.2 Maskers and targets ................................................................................................................... 28 2.3.3 Evaluation of masking effects ................................................................................................... 29 2.3.4 Auditory visual interaction ........................................................................................................ 30 v 2.3.5 Design of masking in soundscape ............................................................................................. 31 2.4 Urban morphology and soundscape ................................................................................................ 32 2.4.1 Definition of urban morphology ................................................................................................ 32 2.4.2 Urban morphological parameters .............................................................................................. 33 2.4.3 Urban morphology in soundscape studies ................................................................................. 34 2.5 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................................... 36 CHAPATER 3 URBAN SOUND SOURCES ............................................................ 37 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 38 3.2 Methods ............................................................................................................................................... 41 3.2.1 Sound recording and collecting ................................................................................................. 41 3.2.2 Acoustic analysis ....................................................................................................................... 49 3.2.3 Psychological evaluations .........................................................................................................