Acoustic Quality and Health in Urban Environments – The SALVE Project

The acoustic environment represents a characteristic of urban environments and can have an impact on the well-being and health of the population. So far, health research has often been restricted to the health risk factor noise, measured by sound decibel levels. Accordingly, public health interventions aim exclusively at the reduction of noise level below a certain threshold. Soundscape Ecology on the other hand comprises all acoustic events of the environment, including biophony, geophony and anthrophony, which are determined by sound level, frequency, time and space. It provides a suitable methodical approach…