Soundscape

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"Soundscape is all sounds, those of biophony, geophony, and anthrophony, emanating from a landscape to create unique acoustical patterns across a variety of spatial and temporal scales” (B. C. Pijanowski, L. J. Villanueva-Rivera, S.L.Dumyahn, A.Farina, B.L.Krause, B.M.Napoletano, S.H.Gage, and N. Pieretti,“Soundscape Ecology: The Science of Sound in the Landscape,”BioScience,vol. 61, no. 3, pp. 203–216, 2011)

"An environment of sound with emphasis on the way it is perceived and understood by the individual, or by a society. It thus depends on the relationship between the individual and any such environment. The termmay refer to actual environments or to ab-stract constructions such as musical compositions and tape montages, particularly when considered as an artificial environment."

(B.Truax,Handbook for Acoustic Ecology. Cam-bridge, MA: Cambridge Street Publishing, 1999.)

"Soundscape is the acoustic environment of aplace, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors."

(A. L. Brown, “A review of progress in soundscapesand an approach to soundscape planning,”The Inter-national Journal of Acoustics and Vibration, vol. 17,no. 2, 2012.)

The term “soundscape” has been used by a variety of disciplines to describe the relationship between a landscape and the composition of its sound. The work of Southworth (1969) exemplifies one of the first uses of the term in the literature. Southworth was interested in urban soundscapes; in particular, his work addressed how the sounds of the built environment enhanced people’s perception of space and their relationship to the activities occurring within cities. As a result, the first mention of soundscapes appears in urban planning literature. Nearly a decade later, Schafer (1977) recognized that sounds are ecological properties of landscapes, referring to soundscapes as “the acoustical characteristics of an area that reflect natural processes.” His primary interest was in characterizing natural sounds that could be used to compose music. Krause (1987) later attempted to describe the complex arrangement of biological sounds and other ambient sounds occurring at a site, and introduced the terms “biophony” to describe the composition of sounds created by organisms and “geophony” to describe nonbiological ambient sounds of wind, rain, thunder, and so on.

We extend this taxonomy of sounds to include “anthrophony” — those caused by humans. Sounds are a perpetual and dynamic property of all landscapes. The sounds of vocalizing and stridulating animals and the nonbiological sounds of running water and rustling wind emanate from natural landscapes. Urban landscapes, in contrast, are dominated by human - produced sounds radiating from a variety of sources, such as machines, sirens, and the friction of tires rotating on pavement (Barber et al. 2010). Since Rachel Carson’s seminal work, Silent Spring (1962), nature’s sounds have been inextricably linked to environmental quality. Because sound is a fundamental property of nature and because it can be drastically affected by a variety of human activities, it is indeed surprising that sound has not become a more universally appreciated measure of a coupled natural–human system (Liu et al.2007). To date, no coherent theory regarding the ecological significance of all sounds emanating from a landscape exists.

Fortunately, new technologies such as automated recording devices (e.g., Acevedo and Villanueva-Rivera 2006), the existence of inexpensive storage capabilities, developments in acoustic data processing (e.g., Sueur et al. 2008, Trifa et al 2008), and theories of related ecological disciplines such as landscape ecology (Forman and Godron 1981, Urban et al. 1987, Turner 1989, Turner et al. 2001, Farina 2006) have advanced sufficiently to allow research on the ecological significance of sounds in landscapes to progress.

Soundscape ecology thus can be described by our working definition as all sounds, those of biophony, geophony, and anthrophony, emanating from a given landscape to create unique acoustical patterns across a variety of spatial and temporal scales.

At the onset, we wish to separate other acoustic studies from what we believe is a unique field of acoustics presented here. To our knowledge, soundscape ecology has not been used in the literature to describe a field of ecology. Acoustic ecology, as introduced by Schafer (1977) and Truax (1999), is seen as complementary to traditional ecological concepts rather than situated within them. Broadly interdisciplinary, acoustic ecology studies the relationships and interactions among humans and sounds in an environment, including musical orchestrations, aural awareness, and acoustic design (Schafer 1977, Truax 1999). Acoustic ecology largely emphasizes human-centered inquiry rather than the larger socioecological systems approach taken here.

Pijanowski, Bryan & Villanueva-Rivera, Luis & Dumyahn, Sarah & Farina, Almo & Krause, Bernie & Napoletano, Brian & Gage, Stuart & Pieretti, Nadia. (2011). Soundscape Ecology: The Science of Sound in the Landscape. BioScience. 61. 10.1525/bio.2011.61.3.6.