Evaluation of the sound environment of the city of Biskra (Algeria)

This research concerns the quantitative evaluation of the urban sound environment of the city of Biskra. The aim was to determine the quality of the soundscape based on in situ measurement, using a Landtek SL5868P sound level meter. 62 points have been identified to represent the whole city. The results show that that the noise level varies from 54.1 to 75.8 dB(A) during the weekdays and from 50.4 to 74.2dB(A) during the weekend. In addition,90% of the results of the weekday measurements and 81% of the results of the weekend measurements exceed the recommended levels given by the World Health Organization. The present urban sound exposure could have a substantial impact on the overall comfort of inhabitants and increase the risk of the syndrome of the sick cities

Morphologie urbaine et pollution sonore : étude de cause à effet. Cas de la ville de Biskra.

La présente recherche analyse la relation entre la morphologie urbaine et l’environnement sonore, sachant que la ville de Biskra a été considérée comme contexte de cette étude. Le travail d’analyse a été réalisé sur trois étapes. Dans la première, nous avons effectué une campagne de mesures in situ dans les différentes entités urbaines représentatives à l’aide d’un sonomètre (Landtek SL5868P), afin d'évaluer la situation sonore actuelle de cette ville en la reliant aux caractéristiques morphologiques des tissus urbains. Dans la deuxième étape une évaluation subjective de l’environnement sonore a été effectuée à l’aide de l’utilisation d’un questionnaire qui repose sur la méthode d’écoute réactivée. Les résultats de ces deux parties ont montré que la ville de Biskra soufre d’un problème de pollution sonore, due principalement au bruit routier, et qu’il existe une significative relation entre la morphologie urbaine, le type de paysage sonore et le taux de pollution acoustique. D’autre part, la recherche a visé dans la troisième étape à étudier l’effet des indicateurs physiques des morphologies urbaines sur la distribution de bruit routier et sur les variations d’intensité sonore au sein des quartiers ainsi qu’au niveau des façades, en utilisant la méthode de la cartographie sonore. Le résultat de cette partie a montré l’existence d’une très forte relation entre les indicateurs physico-morphologiques, la qualité de l’environnement sonore et la répartition de bruit notamment routier. L’analyse croisée des résultats a montré que l’effet de la morphologie urbaine sur la qualité de l’environnement sonore est très significatif, nous devons le prendre en considération dès les premières lignes d’esquisse afin d’assurer des ambiances sonores urbaines confortables, saines et durable

Examining the Associations between Oases Soundscape Components and Walking Speed: Correlation or Causation?

The feeling of calm and tranquillity provided by the oases of Algeria can disappear because of the outdated urbanization strategy which is based on the vehicle as a mode of transport. Walkability is one of the most adoptable sustainable strategies to reduce the negative mechanical transportation effects on the quality of life. This paper aimed to examine the correlation and the causation between oases soundscape components and walking speed. The methodology of this field study was based on an empirical approach at the urban settlements in three oases in Algeria. The correlation between walking speed and soundscape components was obtained through the use of the Spearman correlation test. A one-way ANOVA analysis was conducted to assess the effect of the soundscape components on walking speed. A post hoc Tukey test was adopted to explore the sound component that causes increased walking speed. In this study, no significant correlation was explored between the walking speed and the anthrophonical sounds. In contrast, the statistical analysis of the sound walks experience suggests a moderate and significant negative correlation between geophonical and biophonical sounds, with mean walking speed. The results showed that, the cause of the increase in the mean walking speed of the pedestrians is human sound. The findings suggest that further research is needed to focus on the long-term subjective investigation to explore the correlations and the effects between soundscape, walkability and walking speed

Evaluation of the soundscapes through the cafe terraces before and after the COVID-19 lockdown in coastal cities in Algeria

peer reviewedThis paper aimed to examine the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown in Algeria on the soundscapes’ components throughout the cafe terraces in coastal cities. The methodology is based on a laboratory qualitative approach established and divided into two stages. And the monitoring of sound recordings through twenty-one cafe terraces inside the coastal city of Azzaba in Algeria was conducted before and after the lockdown of whole the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the McNemar’s test on the first stage, results suggest that the lockdown measures in Algeria affect the soundscape components of the cafe terraces, specifically the predominance of the anthrophonical sounds over the natural sound components. The predominance of traffic sounds on the soundscapes after the lockdown period does not reflect an increase in noise level, whereas the soundscapes through the cafe terraces during the two periods were similar, and showed as less noisy by the semantic difference analysis evaluation, of the second stage. The factors of the principal component analysis suggest that the soundscapes of the cafe terraces reflect the main patterns of the acoustics design in the public spaces, such as functions (relaxation and communication), space-time for the two factors of the soundscapes of the period before the lockdown, and by relaxation, space and time for the three factors of those of the period after lockdown. Otherwise, the Marginal Homogeneity Test shows that there are significant differences in the assessment of the soundscapes of the cafe terraces during the two periods, which were only associated to the functions. Findings suggest that additional long-term research is needed to preserve and improve the cultural soundscapes among the urban spaces to ensure the acoustic comfort of the occupants and preserve their health

Exploring the Multisensory Interaction between Luminous, Thermal and Auditory Environments through the Spatial Promenade Experience: A Case Study of a University Campus in an Oasis Settlement

peer reviewedThis paper aimed to develop a multisensory approach in a university campus, based on quantitative and qualitative approaches, investigating sense walk experiences (thermo-visual sound walk) under interactions of luminous, thermal, and auditory environments. The study was conducted in October 2021, in Chetma university campus in Biskra city, southern Algeria, which remains a famous oasis settlement of arid regions over the country. A comparative and correlation analysis was performed between the physical dimensions collected through a walking experience in three campus routes (outdoor, semi-outdoor and indoor). In addition, a multisensory survey of the walking experience on perceptual dimensions was evaluated in parallel to the empirical contribution. The paper shows that walkers’ thermal levels were balanced between neural and slightly hot in different spatial aspects. The glare was almost unperceived regarding the luminous conditions in the study site. The auditory experience reveals that the conducted points were generally quiet and well placed for educational requirements. Findings also show a strong relationship between the physical dimensions of the luminous and auditory environment. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the thermal and luminous environments are more perceptible than the auditory environment for the walkers of the outdoor and indoor routes. In contrast, the semi-outdoor route is often perceptible by the perceptual dimensions of the luminous and auditory environments. The findings on sensorial thresholds and spatial adaption are essential for the educational practices’ architectural and urban strategies for the Saharan cities and oasis settlements

Soundscape Attributes Translation Project (SATP) Dataset

The data and audio included here were collected for the Soundscape Attributes Translation Project (SATP). First introduced in Aletta et. al. (2020), the SATP is an attempt to provide validated translations of soundscape attributes in languages other than English. The recordings were used for headphones - based listening experiments. The data are provided to accompany publications resulting from this project and to provide a unique dataset of 1000s of perceptual responses to a standardised set of urban soundscape recordings. This dataset is the result of efforts from hundreds of researchers, students, assistants, PIs, and participants from institutions around the world. We have made an attempt to list every contributor to this Zenodo repo; if you feel you should be included, please get in touch. Citation: If you use the SATP dataset or part of it, please cite our paper describing the data collection and this dataset itself. Overview: The SATP dataset consists of 27 30-sec binaural audio recordings made in urban public spaces in London and one 60 sec stereo calibration signal. The recordings were made at locations as reported in Table 1 of the README.md (Recording locations), at various times of day by an operator wearing a binaural kit consisting of BHS II microphones and a SQobold (HEAD acoustics) device. Recordings were then exported to WAV via the ArtemiS SUITE software, using the original dynamic range from HDF. The listening experiment and the calibration procedure were intended for a headphone playback system (Sennheiser HD650 or similar open-back headphones recommended).  The recordings were selected from an initial set of 80 recordings through a pilot study to ensure the test set had an even coverage of the soundscape circumplex space. These recordings were sent to the partner institutions (see Table 2 of the README.md) and assessed by approximately 30 participants in the institution's target language. The questionnaire used in each assessment is a translation of Method A Questionnaire, ISO 12913-2:2018. Each institution carried out their own lab experiment to collect data, then submitted their data to the team at UCL to compile into a single dataset. Some institutions included additional questions or translation options; the combined dataset (`SATP Dataset v1.x.xlsx`) includes only the base set of questions, the extended set of questions from each institution is included in the `Institution Datasets` folder. In all, SATP Dataset v1.2 contains 17,441 samples, including 645 participants, for 27 recordings, in 19 languages with contributions from 29 institutions. Format: The audio recordings are provided as 24 bit, 48 kHz, stereo WAV files. The combined dataset and Institutional datasets are provided as long tidy data tables in .xlsx files. Calibration: The recommended calibration approach was based on the open-circuit voltage (OCV) procedure which was considered most accessible but other calibration procedures are also possible (Lam et. al. (2022)). The provided calibration file is a computer generated sine wave at 1kHz, matching a sine wave recorded using the exact same setup at SPL of 94 dB. In case of the calibration signal playback level set to match SPL of 94 dB at the eardrum, all the 27 samples should be reproduced at realistic loudness. More details on OCV calibration procedure and other options you can find in Lam et. al. (2022) and the attached documentation. PLEASE DO NOT EXPOSE YOURSELF NOR THE PARTICIPANTS TO THE CALIBRATION SIGNAL SET AT THE REALISTIC LEVEL AS IT CAN CAUSE HARM. License and reuse: All SATP recordings are provided under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License and are free to use. We encourage other researchers to replicate the SATP protocol and contribute new languages to the dataset. We also encourage the use of these recordings and the perceptual data for further soundscape research purposes. Please provide the proper attribution and get in touch with the authors if you would like to contribute a new translation or for any other collaborations