Hao, Y., Kang, J. orcid.org/0000-0001-8995-5636 and Wörtche, H. (2016) Assessment of the masking effects of birdsong on the road traffic noise environment. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2 (140). pp. 978-987. ISSN 0001-4966
Abstract
This study aims to explore how the soundscape quality of traffic noise environments can be improved by the masking effects of birdsong in terms of four soundscape characteristics, i.e., Perceived Loudness, Naturalness, Annoyance and Pleasantness. Four factors that may influence the masking effects of birdsong (i.e., distance of the receiver from a sound source, loudness of masker, occurrence frequencies of masker, and visibility of sound sources) were examined by listening tests. The results show that the masking effects are more significant in the road traffic noise environments with lower sound levels (e.g. <52.5 dBA), or of distance from traffic (e.g. >19 m). Adding birdsong can indeed increase the Naturalness and Pleasantness of the traffic noise environment at different distances of the receiver from a road. Naturalness, Annoyance and Pleasantness, but not Perceived Loudness, can be altered by increasing the birdsong loudness (i.e., from 37.5 to 52.5 dBA in this study). The Pleasantness of traffic noise environments increases significantly from 2.7 to 6.7, when the occurrence of birdsong over a period of 30 s is increased from 2 to 6 times. The visibility of the sound source also influences the masking effects, but its effect is not as significant as the effects of the three other factors.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 Acoustical Society of America. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Architecture (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 15 Aug 2016 11:55 |
Last Modified: | 14 Apr 2017 04:02 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4960570 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Acoustical Society of America |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1121/1.4960570 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:103745 |