Commercial soundscape: propuesta de un método de aproximación a la caracterización de un paisaje sonoro comercial en la ciudad

Abstract

In recent years, the sound is lawfully present in urban and architectural projects through new regulations approved acoustic. But also in the field of research which studies the characterization of a fuller sound. In various published researches it has shown that the simple measurement of sound intensity (dB) is not sufficient to characterize the soundscape (soundscape) of a place. Therefore it is necessary to understand a soundscape in a better way and develop methods that allow a more complete characterization thereof. Several investigators have developed multicriteria methods for this characterization. One of the main elements that characterize a soundscape are the activities that exist in the urban environment of the soundscape. Most urban activities generate sound; some of these activities need that sound to create an environment to their own development and other need instead of silence for their development. The objective of this Thesis is to investigate whether it is possible to establish a correlation which allows for an urban activity, in this case the commerce, with the soundscape and the urban environment in which the soundscape develops. Finding a pattern of behavior from three aspects: urban activity (COMMERCE), the urban environment where the activity exists (PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT: physical, facades height, width of road, rail, etc.) and the sound produced in that place (SOUNDSCAPE). Each of the three areas has been measured or characterized by indicators. An important part of this Thesis has been devoted to seek and propose these indicators. The same indicators have later used to compare different urban places to assess the correlation between the three aspects. The proposed methodology can be divided into two parts: a first part dedicated to the creation of a theoretical framework based on background and bibliographic references of previous researches. And a second part based on campaign records, field work, a total of four records Campaigns (PHASES) have been carried out. Each phase has consisted of several urban places. In each place, the indicators have been collected (sound, commercial and physical) depending on the phase. For each stage of each campaign has made a file, where each indicator has been collected. It has been collected 38 places were chosen over four campaigns of records in three different cities: The first records campaign held in Melbourne Australia). The second campaign held in Logroño (Spain). Third campaign held in Barcelona (Spain). Fourth campaign held in Barcelona (Spain). Throughout the campaigns have been identified, proposed and evaluated different indicators. The indicators and how to pick them "in situ" also have been developed over the campaigns. The nature of these indicators has been as follows: Commercial Indicators (COMMERCE): variables that have collected data related to commerce (such as commercial intensity per meter of facade or typologies of commerce) and social activities that are generated in the place. Physical indicators (PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT): variables that have gathered physical data in the place analyzed. And acoustic indicators (SOUNDSCAPE): Variables that collected the recorded sound in each place. These variables were based on the analysis of two acoustic measurements: the frequency spectrum and spectrogram. This Thesis has shown the need for a multicriteria method to develop any urban acoustic project, due to the complexity of the elements that configure a soundscape. It has also shown it is difficult to establish a clear correlation between the three aspects proposed. It has proved essential to establish the conditions of field study, since the external acoustic, unlike the interior, presents problems in limiting the area of places analyzed. These terms refer to the physical and temporal boundaries of the study area. As it has shown in this Thesis, the temporal aspect has a significant influence on their characterization.