Soundwalking in Salford: A Soundscape Approach to Drone Noise Assessment

Green, Marc; Torija Martinez, Antonio

Abstract

This paper introduces the method of controlled addition of drone sound sources to an existing acoustic scene in order to assess their impact using the soundwalking technique. A set of soundwalks were conducted at The Meadow, Salford to assess the perceptual impact of drone take-off, flyby, and landing events that were added to the acoustic scene. A total of 16 participants were taken on a guided route to three listening locations, each location visited twice. On one of these visits, a drone was operated to add a sound event to the existing acoustic environment. At each stop, participants were asked to fill in a question naire designed to test their perception of the sound environment following the ISO 12913-2 standard, using semantic differential scales, perception of the balance between sounds of human, natural, and mechanical origin, and annoyance. It was found that addition of the drone landing events had statistically significant effects on perception along the dimensions of comfort and calmness, as well as the prevalence of natural and human sounds. Due to the design of this test, it is unclear whether these results are more reflective of the character of the drone landing event or the interaction with the existing acoustic scene. Further inves tigation of correlations between responses shows that the introduction of the drone reduces variability between the measured emotional dimensions of pleasantness, appropriateness, comfort, and calmness.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Start Date: Sep 8, 2024
• End Date: Sep 11, 2024
• Acceptance Date: Sep 8, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Nov 26, 2024
• Publication Date: Nov 26, 2024
• Deposit Date: Nov 26, 2024
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.17866/rd.salford.27886275.v1