Making the Soundscape Map of the City Using the Grounded Theory and Nvivo Application (Case Study: the District 12 of Tehran)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Abstract

Introduction
According to the definition of Trucks the soundscape concept is a subjective component. It means the way that the environment is understood by the individuals and communities and it examines concepts such as people's expectations. The last attempt to define the soundscape has been carried out as an interdisciplinary subject that is related to an ISO group called ISO / TC 43 / SC 1 / WG 54, that is obliged to provide a comprehensive and standardized definition of the landscape term after examining the 24 participating countries: "A acoustic environment which is perceived experienced or understood by a person or group of people.” Definitely, all of these definitions focus on the two main issue "environment" or "listener person". There is a lot of study that define the soundscape based on the acoustic environment and the place of the individual. But, in newer definition the main emphasis is on the listener person.
Materials and Methods
Since the assessment of the soundscape is an interdisciplinary subject and is examined from different aspects (Social sciences, environmental, psychology, design, planning and urban management, landscape architecture, acoustics, etc.), So, it seems that using a combinatorial approach is more logical that can cover the existing approach as much as possible. Therefore, in this study, the various methods and models have been used to progress for each target of the study. First, the use of the grounded method was selected for the fieldwork and data analysis. Since, the main emphasis of this method is on the results arising from the memory writing of the participants, in other words, it is based on the listener’s individual in the research process, because in the recent years, most of studies have emphasized to the individual than the place or acoustic environment, that this indicates a shift direction in the definition and evaluation of the soundscape. For this purpose, it is required to express all the subjects related to how a listener’s individual can be the center of this study and "using a linguistic approach to apply its concepts for the recognition of soundscape issues". Finally, the model of "soundscape planning of the Pier Headforce has been used that is known as the Sonotop map to provide better solutions. This model has been also used somewhat in the Global Sustainable Soundscape Network project (CNH-RCN).
Discussion of the Results
The final evaluation and analysis of data shows there are mainly four types of judgment about soundscape:
1) High Soundscape, but acceptable
There is a deep thought about the sound in this category of soundscapes, a decision of having the role and sinking in the voice of the activity. This case related often to other aspects of the acoustic preferences of the listeners. Although participants sometimes like silence, but they really like being around other people and enjoy from the dialogue with them. The live music is one of their main methods and preferences for the leisure time. Although, the live music events are noisy and controversial, but these events are also very heartfelt to them and they are not afraid to share his private space.
2) High soundscape and unacceptable
The largest category of reactions to the negative effects is unwanted interferences. These sounds are usually loud noises and stimulating such as sirens, cars and motorcycles horn. Reactions and the main reasons for this interference are more complex and extensive than they seem. Initially, those sounds were considered likely that someone could generally expect the irritation from them, but they are considered as an inseparable part of the soundscape. The Police and ambulance sirens are some examples of non-irritated "irritation", although, the sirens are certainly louder and more irritating, and especially they are designed for people attraction, but the sounds of the horns are much more persecutor.

3) Calm soundscape and acceptable
Desirable and calm environments have been generally described by joy or peace feeling. Many phonetics researches have been focused to generate quiet environments and have achieved a relative success as well. These researches are generally focused on the urban parks and their potential and bracing nature. It seems also that there is very little attention to the peaceful places that are not the urban green spaces. In contrast, very few people have been used in the study of the urban parks for this purpose.

4) Quite soundscape, but dreadful
There was only a concept for this category, places that are silent, but have a negative manner and accordingly, the loneliness and fear issues have been formed, some issues like the public subjects that are the key tools in the confronting mechanisms that the listeners use them to conflict with the spaces that have been judged as the undesirable, but silent soundscapes. The actively understanding process of these soundscapes relatively is clear. The listener wants generally a level of human passive companionship. If they fail to hear or understand someone who is around them, show their loneliness and generally use a confronting mechanism in these cases. This case is often linked to the space.
Conclusions
In this study using grounded theory, how the perception of sound judgment and a variety of audio available from soundscape was found in the study area. The results show that the sounscape are manifold and complex concept and people’s Perception of different factors affecting the environment is Mnazrsvty on their overall satisfaction. Consequently, in evaluating Soundscape according to the emotions of each person and the background of their social and cultural is very important, so that in case of providing satisfaction, a sense of comfort created in person, and if not satisfied, if a person's ability to control the environment not by ignoring the noise, vandalism and leaving phenomenon will occur.
Harvest information by memory correspondence and interviews within the study, it was concluded that when " threshold attention" of person to enter into a soundscape to be enough, this soundscape considered and responded listener in the way of his judgment about soundscape impressive. The changes range of the soundscape is “high, but acceptable”, “high, but unacceptable”, “calm and acceptable” and “the quiet soundscape but dreadful.” The most important voices that can be heard from the city are unpleasant sounds such as traffic voice, construction, street factories and repair shops, neighbors loud music sound, uproar sounds and so on. Gray voices have created some brown fields that have been surrounded into the spaces between the buildings.
Here the main question would be "how to apply the results of the evaluation soundscape design and urban planning in the area to be used?" Since urban planning based on the location information, using GIS are different models for the future, proper planning in order to improve the environment. Thus, sounscape evaluation purposes in the study area from theory into practice is more closely coordinated.
Per Hedfors used Ian Mc Harg method of landscape analysis to evaluate soundscape maps. In this regard, the researcher stated that the method can be combined with a clear map to show different aspects of the same soundscape. soundscape layer (sonotope) proposed as one of the information layers in planning urban soundscape. To define the existing Sonotops, the expected aural modes of the users should be considered about the relevant locations. Expected activities in their place are very important due to the land use in the planning or designing the acoustic and appropriate conditions. A list of available acoustic resources can be drawn based on the land use plan. The planning resource can be allocated to the new places in the soundscapes. Therefore, the acoustic fields map can be identified through all acoustic, effective resources in the area. Nowadays, the common method of the description of the acoustic fields for one or more acoustic resources to design or understanding is often limited to the sound intensity feature.

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