The temporal structure of urban soundscapes

The influence of noise on the quality of the urban living environment has traditionally been studied focusing on negative effects on man, such as noise annoyance and sleep disturbance. Recently a more holistic approach, including positive and negative aspects as well as non-residential functions of the urban environment, has gained renewed interest. The label “urban soundscape” is often used to refer to this approach. Research towards quantification of the acoustic descriptors of the urban soundscape is, however, still in an early stage. This paper draws on the analogy with music to propose an indicator for studying the temporal structure of the urban soundscape. The link to self-organized criticality of the underlying system is drawn. The influence on the new indicator of road traffic noise, an important soundscape disturber in urban areas, is analyzed in detail.