Papers by Francesco Aletta
Limited traffic zones LTZ are strategies that municipalities adopt to improve environmental quali... more Limited traffic zones LTZ are strategies that municipalities adopt to improve environmental quality. In recent years a wide increase of LTZ has been registered in Europe. Although the main aim is to tackle air pollution, they impact also on noise pollution which is a big problem in many cities, despite legislation limits are imposed and/or suggested at national and international level. Recently the municipality of Naples is implementing the LTZ in different areas, within a wider program of interventions aimed at urban renewal and conservation of cultural heritage. In a study dated years ago the authors were involved in a field survey performed before and after the implementation of LTZ in Naples. The survey was based on the acquisition of environmental parameters influencing the human perception and on in situ interviews. The survey confirmed the multidimensional nature of the environmental perception according to a Soundscape approach. Despite a not really significant decrease of sound levels, the variation of the "quality of sound" after LTZ implementation was evaluated globally positive by a significant percentage of subjects. In this paper further measurements, interviews and analysis are presented in order to confirm the above tendency and/or identify possible modifications of judgements.
Sustainable Cities and Society, 2016
Landscape and Urban Planning, 2016
Noise Mapping, 2015
In the guidelines about the management of areas of good environmental noise quality recently publ... more In the guidelines about the management of areas of good environmental noise quality recently published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) it is suggested to combine different methodologies, like noise mapping, sound level measurements and the soundscape approach. Such a recommendation has started to be recognised by a number of local authorities in Europe that are gradually integrating a holistic concept into their environmental noise policies. This research aimed to explore and demonstrate the possibility to integrate conventional noise mapping methods and soundscape methods in an actual urban redevelopment project. A case study was made using the Valley Gardens project in Brighton & Hove (UK). Different scenarios of sound-pressure level distributions were simulated for both traffic sound sources (i.e. noise maps) and natural sound sources (i.e. sound maps). Additionally, individual responses about the sound environment of the place collected during an on-site question survey were used to implement soundscape maps. The overall picture revealed that the road traffic noise should be reduced, but also it is feasible that preferred sounds like water features or birdsong could be introduced to make the sound environment more appropriate for the place. Generally, within the framework of this research, noise maps, sound maps and soundscape maps were used together to "triangulate" different layers of information related to the acoustic environment and the way it is perceived, providing a possible working procedure to consider for planners and policy-makers in the future
The paper presents the preliminary stage of a research about the effect of a multisensory percept... more The paper presents the preliminary stage of a research about the effect of a multisensory perception on the perceived annoyance and pleasantness of railways noise barriers. The aim of this study is to investigate if a different design of the barrier can influence the noise perception of the population by making the sound source (train pass-by) visible or not, while the same audio signals are held. At the same time, visual and "aesthetic" aspects are investigated. Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technologies and a "paired comparison" structure were used to prepare the test. As the audio signals were held constant during the experiments, it seemed likely to ascribe the noticed differences of the assessment to the visual stimulus.
So far noise maps in urban areas are based on sound measurements in fixed positions and/or on pre... more So far noise maps in urban areas are based on sound measurements in fixed positions and/or on predictive models which can consider several sound sources emissions and that can elaborate the propagation phenomena. The feedback of these maps is useful in determining the role of each sound source on the overall noise pollution, in evaluating the percentage of population exposed to noise and in applying consequent action plans. Nevertheless it is quite difficult to handle this information when the soundscape of a area is determined by several sound sources connected to human activities rather than road traffic noise. This can be the case of the historic part of a city which is visited and crossed by pedestrians (residents and tourists) during day and night. The perceived sound atmosphere and the judgment of the relative annoyance is more connected with the expectations of the visitor, it is integrated with other sensations and it depends on the dynamic way in which these sensations chan...
The collaborative and comprehensive work of group-1, who have attended the short term scientific ... more The collaborative and comprehensive work of group-1, who have attended the short term scientific mission (STSM) initiated through COST: Action TD0804, for the training on soundscape recording and analysis techniques is presented. Group-1 was composed of 9 young researchers who were trained by experienced researchers. The theoretical part of the training school included firstly, introduction to measurement technology, its theory and practical use and secondly, the basic analysis of sound by the conventional indicators and psychoacoustic parameters. Practice on field study was accomplished through semistructured interview techniques, and evaluation of the recorded dialogue by grounded theory. All these theoretical and practical exercises were followed by a case study. The case study was designed as a sound walk on a pre-defined route, which was accompanied with binaural recordings and soundscape evaluation survey. The STSM for training on the soundscape recording and analysis was accomplished through the presentations and discussions of the results for the case studies of the groups. The results of the recordings and surveys as well as the results of the comparative lab-listening tests of the recorded sound samples of group-1 are presented and discussed as the major parts of this study.
Scientific research on how people perceive, experience or understand the acoustic environment as ... more Scientific research on how people perceive, experience or understand the acoustic environment as a whole (i.e., soundscape) is still in development, both with regards to acoustic properties, as well as personality and individual differences. In order to predict how people would perceive an acoustic environment, it is central to identify the underlying acoustic properties of soundscapes. In this study these properties were approached by investigating the visual similarity of colour prints of 50 audio spectrograms (time vs. frequency), representing audio recordings of a variety of acoustic environments. In total, 15 female and 15 male students from the University of Sheffield were recruited to assess the 50 spectrograms by sorting them into groups based on how similar they were perceived to be. A distance matrix, derived from the sorting data, was subjected to a Multidimensional Scaling analysis to map the underlying dimensions of similarity among the spectrograms, which are proposed ...
The purpose of the present study was to characterize the soundscape of the Valley Gardens in Brig... more The purpose of the present study was to characterize the soundscape of the Valley Gardens in Brighton before the area is converted into a downtown park. Valley Gardens is located in the busy city centre. It extends from the Brighton Pier at the seafront and approximately 1.5 km to the north. It includes Old Stein, Victoria Gardens, St Peter's Church, and The Level. In 2015 work will commence on redeveloping Victoria Gardens and St Peter's Church. In order to characterize the soundscape of the Valley Gardens prior to this urban design intervention a soundwalk was conducted. In October 2014, a group of 21 persons-experts in acoustics and officers of the City Council-were guided through the area together, and assessed the soundscape at eight sites: five within the Valley Gardens and three reference sites. The assessments covered the soundscape quality, how appropriate the soundscape is to the place, the dominance of perceived sound sources, and the affective quality of the soun...
The acoustics of the Ancient Theatre of Beneventum has been object of attention by the authors si... more The acoustics of the Ancient Theatre of Beneventum has been object of attention by the authors since five years ago when measurements were carried out in the aim of its characterization in the present state. This theatre was built by Emperor Hadrian in the 1st century A.D. Later, historical events as barbarian invasions, earthquakes and floods determined its abandonment. A large part of the materials of the construction was used to build defensive walls in the Lombard period and for the embellishment of churches and palaces. During the course of subsequent centuries the theatre became the settlement of humble dwellings. At the start of the 20th century the crumbling houses were demolished to start the reconstruction of the theatre which was completed, as it appears in the present state, in 1950. This paper reports a computer simulation of the acoustics of the Roman Theatre performed by Odeon software. Calculated results are compared with those stemmed from the previous measurements carried out by the authors in the unoccupied theatre. Furthermore, a simulation of the effects of audience occupation on the acoustics is presented.
The collaborative and comprehensive work of group-1, who have attended the short term scientific ... more The collaborative and comprehensive work of group-1, who have attended the short term scientific mission (STSM) initiated through COST: Action TD0804, for the training on soundscape recording and analysis techniques is presented. Group-1 was composed of 9 young researchers who were trained by experienced researchers. The theoretical part of the training school included firstly, introduction to measurement technology, its theory and practical use and secondly, the basic analysis of sound by the conventional indicators and psychoacoustic parameters. Practice on field study was accomplished through semistructured interview techniques, and evaluation of the recorded dialogue by grounded theory. All these theoretical and practical exercises were followed by a case study. The case study was designed as a sound walk on a pre-defined route, which was accompanied with binaural recordings and soundscape evaluation survey. The STSM for training on the soundscape recording and analysis was accomplished through the presentations and discussions of the results for the case studies of the groups. The results of the recordings and surveys as well as the results of the comparative lab-listening tests of the recorded sound samples of group-1 are presented and discussed as the major parts of this study.
According to the recently published ISO 12913-1, soundscape differs from the acoustic environment... more According to the recently published ISO 12913-1, soundscape differs from the acoustic environment, since the first refers to a perceptual construct, whilst the latter to a physical phenomenon. Noise exposure has been a main concern over the last decades, but from the planning viewpoint limited attention has been given to the perception of the acoustic environment and its representation at a city scale. This paper aims to establish a method for representing soundscape through source-related maps and secondly to correlate the sound sources with the urban context in terms of specific activities. Using a grid-based sampling methodology within the broader area of Sheffield city centre, soundscape data were collected in 90 spots, during morning and evening hours. Afterwards, soundscape variability for technological, anthropic and natural sounds was represented by maps using a Kriging interpolation technique in GIS. Preliminary results show how sound sources’ spatial variation in urban sou...
Limited traffic zones LTZ are strategies that municipalities adopt to improve environmental quali... more Limited traffic zones LTZ are strategies that municipalities adopt to improve environmental quality. In recent years a wide increase of LTZ has been registered in Europe. Although the main aim is to tackle air pollution, they impact also on noise pollution which is a big problem in many cities, despite legislation limits are imposed and/or suggested at national and international level. Recently the municipality of Naples is implementing the LTZ in different areas, within a wider program of interventions aimed at urban renewal and conservation of cultural heritage. In a study dated years ago the authors were involved in a field survey performed before and after the implementation of LTZ in Naples. The survey was based on the acquisition of environmental parameters influencing the human perception and on in situ interviews. The survey confirmed the multidimensional nature of the environmental perception according to a Soundscape approach. Despite a not really significant decrease of sound levels, the variation of the "quality of sound" after LTZ implementation was evaluated globally positive by a significant percentage of subjects. In this paper further measurements, interviews and analysis are presented in order to confirm the above tendency and/or identify possible modifications of judgements.
Brighton & Hove is a thriving UK seaside city facing new and on-going noise issues. It is a desti... more Brighton & Hove is a thriving UK seaside city facing new and on-going noise issues. It is a destination city with a wide range of restaurants, bars and clubs, which, along with an impressive arts and cultural offer adds to the excitement and interest both for residents and visitors. Brighton provides support to the creative arts, attracts business and investment in the fabric of the city. Two key issues face Urban Planning. Balancing the needs of the tourist and night time economy against the demands of residents for a peaceful and quiet enjoyment of city centre residential areas and the challenge of designing and manage public spaces that embrace principles of Soundscape planning in a compact and densely populated city. This paper will introduce different ways of tackling these problems which are shared and experienced by European cities using Urban Sound Planning. In particular, this paper reviews the introduction of Urban Sound Planning as a credible and valuable discipline, to w...
The aim of the Auralization process is to create audible sound files from numerical data, which c... more The aim of the Auralization process is to create audible sound files from numerical data, which can be simulated, measured or synthesised [1]. This process has been used for the simulation of indoor sound since the 1960’s, while, due to the complexity of predicting sound in an outdoor environments, for these contexts, has only recently gained attention of experts. Moreover recently this process is even more frequently used in combination with visual scenarios. Today, even though the computing power and data storage allows a better managing and processing of the information, Outdoor Auralization remains still demanding. In order to reduce the computation load needed for the auralization of outdoor environments, the efforts of experts are oriented to reach a perceptually correct or plausible auralization rather than a physically correct auralization [2]. The concept of plausibility is often referred to as the perceived agreement with the listener’s expectation towards a corresponding ...
Noise Mapping, 2014
Environmental noise is a very important issue in modern urban agglomerations and new policies are... more Environmental noise is a very important issue in modern urban agglomerations and new policies are being explored in order to reduce high sound-pressure levels from transportation and industry, especially in urban contexts. Considering this issue from the subjective perspective, environmental noise is often related to noise annoyance. Over the years, possible solutions were explored for urban sound planning beyond the mere noise control engineering techniques and a number of international projects proposed innovative approaches to deal with this issue: most of them were traffic-related. In order to support the city management, it is suitable to analyse possible indirect effects of traffic limitations on the perception of the sonic environment. Indeed, it was observed that even traffic management plans with no specific focus on noise mitigation are likely to have acoustic implications. The present study investigated the variations of the sonic environment induced by the implementation of a Limited Traffic Zone (LTZ) in the historic centre of Naples, in terms of objective parameters and perceived quality of the 'sound' component by means of noise and social surveys before, immediately after and one year after the LTZ implementation, in order to check for possible time effects. Results show that the sample interviewed immediately after the LTZ implementation reported overall positive opinions on the sonic environment and its variation, while the sample interviewed one year after tended to shift to more neutral opinions. This finding suggests that the LTZ could be considered an effective environmental strategy for the urban noise control, but it should be adequately actuated in order to preserve the achievements in terms of noise reduction and subjective perception by the local population.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2012
In recent years the number of candidate historic city centers to be included in the World Heritag... more In recent years the number of candidate historic city centers to be included in the World Heritage List is increasing. This inclusion must be supported by a Management Plan programming all intervention to be implemented for the preservation of the "outstanding universal value". So far the Management Plans do not consider the preservation and valorization of the soundscape. Consequently, urban renewal processes are based on conservation and restoration of tangible cultural heritage, in order to increase touristic attraction and to improve the quality of life. All these efforts privilege visual perception and do not take in account the auditory perception. Soundscape of a site can be considered an intangible cultural heritage to be preserved and valorized as it constitutes a peculiar characteristic of the place. It makes the place recognizable and attractive. Recently the historic centre of Naples (Italy), as World Heritage Site, has been under renewal and for sustainable mobility the largest restricted traffic area (LTZ) in Europe has been introduced. The results of soundwalks carried out in the historic center of Naples before and after the implementation of ZTL are presented. The variations of acoustical and other environmental parameters influencing the subjective perception of environmental quality are analyzed.
Preserving the soundscape and geographic extension of quiet areas is a great challenge against th... more Preserving the soundscape and geographic extension of quiet areas is a great challenge against the wide-spreading of environmental noise. The E.U. Environmental Noise Directive underlines the need to preserve quiet areas as a new aim for the management of noise in European countries. At the same time, due to their low population density, rural areas characterized by suitable wind are considered appropriate locations for installing wind farms. However, despite the fact that wind farms are represented as environmentally friendly projects, these plants are often viewed as visual and audible intruders, that spoil the landscape and generate noise. Even though the correlations are still unclear, it is obvious that visual impacts of wind farms could increase due to their size and coherence with respect to the rural/quiet environment. In this paper, by using the Immersive Virtual Reality technique, some visual and acoustical aspects of the impact of a wind farm on a sample of subjects were assessed and analyzed. The subjects were immersed in a virtual scenario that represented a situation of a typical rural outdoor scenario that they experienced at different distances from the wind turbines. The influence of the number and the colour of wind turbines on global, visual and auditory judgment were investigated. The main results
Science of The Total …, Feb 15, 2013
Noise annoyance is considered as the main effect of noise, it is a complex and multifaceted psych... more Noise annoyance is considered as the main effect of noise, it is a complex and multifaceted psychological concept dealing with immediate behavioral and evaluative aspects. In the last decades the research has intensely investigated the correlation between noise exposure and noise annoyance, nevertheless recent studies confirm that non-auditory factors influence the noise perception of individuals. In particular audio–video interaction can play a fundamental role. Today Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) systems allow building laboratory test providing realistic experiences of the surrounding environment to detect more accurate information about the reactions of the local population.
Regarding the interventions for environmental noise control the barriers represent the main solution; however some aspects related to their visual characteristic have to be further investigated.
This paper presented a case study, where a sample of residents living close to a railway line assessed noise-related aspects for several barriers with different visual characteristics in an IVR laboratory test. In particular, three main factors were analyzed: the barrier type concerning the visibility of the noise source through the screen, the visual aspect of the barrier concerning some aesthetic issues and the noise level at the receiver concerning the acoustic performance of the barrier and the magnitude of the sound source. The main results of the ANOVA analysis showed that for transparent barriers Perceived Loudness and Noise Annoyance were judged lower than for opaque barriers; this difference increased as noise level increased.
Highlights
► The Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technique allows to involve the local community. ► IVR is used to test noise perception of railway noise in the presence of screens. ► Loudness and Annoyance are judged lower for transparent screens than for opaque ones. ► Perception gaps between opaque and transparent screens increase with noise level.
Uploads
Papers by Francesco Aletta
Regarding the interventions for environmental noise control the barriers represent the main solution; however some aspects related to their visual characteristic have to be further investigated.
This paper presented a case study, where a sample of residents living close to a railway line assessed noise-related aspects for several barriers with different visual characteristics in an IVR laboratory test. In particular, three main factors were analyzed: the barrier type concerning the visibility of the noise source through the screen, the visual aspect of the barrier concerning some aesthetic issues and the noise level at the receiver concerning the acoustic performance of the barrier and the magnitude of the sound source. The main results of the ANOVA analysis showed that for transparent barriers Perceived Loudness and Noise Annoyance were judged lower than for opaque barriers; this difference increased as noise level increased.
Highlights
► The Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technique allows to involve the local community. ► IVR is used to test noise perception of railway noise in the presence of screens. ► Loudness and Annoyance are judged lower for transparent screens than for opaque ones. ► Perception gaps between opaque and transparent screens increase with noise level.
Regarding the interventions for environmental noise control the barriers represent the main solution; however some aspects related to their visual characteristic have to be further investigated.
This paper presented a case study, where a sample of residents living close to a railway line assessed noise-related aspects for several barriers with different visual characteristics in an IVR laboratory test. In particular, three main factors were analyzed: the barrier type concerning the visibility of the noise source through the screen, the visual aspect of the barrier concerning some aesthetic issues and the noise level at the receiver concerning the acoustic performance of the barrier and the magnitude of the sound source. The main results of the ANOVA analysis showed that for transparent barriers Perceived Loudness and Noise Annoyance were judged lower than for opaque barriers; this difference increased as noise level increased.
Highlights
► The Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technique allows to involve the local community. ► IVR is used to test noise perception of railway noise in the presence of screens. ► Loudness and Annoyance are judged lower for transparent screens than for opaque ones. ► Perception gaps between opaque and transparent screens increase with noise level.