Soundscape

It’s a foundational idea in Acoustic Ecology and is often described as the auditory equivalent of a landscape.

A soundscape is defined as the acoustic environment as perceived or experienced by a person or people, in context (ISO 12913; Mitchell et al., 2023; ISO, 2014). It encompasses all the sounds that emanate from a given area, but crucially, it includes the listener’s relationship with and perception of those sounds.

Three Primary Components of a Soundscape

In the field of Soundscape Ecology, the total sound of any location is categorized into three main sources (Pijanowski et al., 2011; Krause, 1993):

• 1. Biophony: 🌿 The non-human biological sounds of an environment.

  • Examples: Bird calls, frog choruses, insect chirps, whale songs.

  • Significance: High biophony often suggests a rich biodiversity and a healthy ecosystem.

• 2. Geophony: 🌍 The non-biological natural sounds of an environment.

  • Examples: Wind rustling through leaves, rain, thunder, waves crashing, flowing water.

  • Significance: These sounds reflect the geophysical processes and natural climate of a place.

• 3. Anthropophony: 🏘️ The human-generated sounds.

  • Examples: Traffic noise, construction, human voices, music, factory machinery, sirens.

  • Significance: This component is a key indicator of human impact. A subset, sometimes called technophony, refers specifically to electro-mechanical noise (Krause, 1993).

Soundscape vs. Acoustic Environment

It’s important to note the distinction:

• Acoustic Environment is the purely objective, physical sound that reaches a listener’s ears (the collection of all sound waves).

• Soundscape is the subjective experience of that acoustic environment. It includes how the listener’s cultural background, expectations, visual setting, and context influence their perception and understanding of the sounds (Schafer, 1977).

For example, the sound of a stream (geophony) might be relaxing in a park (high-quality soundscape), but the persistent, loud sound of a jackhammer (anthrophony/technophony) is often perceived as noise pollution and contributes to a degraded soundscape.

Key Elements (Schafer’s Classification)

The concept was popularized by R. Murray Schafer, who also identified key elements within a soundscape:

• Keynote Sounds: The constant, often unnoticed background hum that defines the character of a place (like the subtle drone of distant traffic or the constant lapping of waves).

• Sound Signals: Foreground sounds that are listened to consciously and demand attention (like a car horn or a bird’s distinct alarm call).

• Soundmarks: Unique, culturally specific sounds that are highly valued and characteristic of a location, serving as an auditory landmark (like the bells of a specific clock tower).

This concept is essential because it moves beyond simply measuring noise levels (a purely physical metric) to understanding the quality of life and ecological health of a location through its sounds.

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📚 References

ISO (International Standards Organization). (2014). ISO 12913-1:2014(en) Acoustics - Soundscape - Part 1: Definition and conceptual framework. ISO Publications.

Krause, B. L. (1993). The niche hypothesis: A new perspective on the origins of music. The World of Music, 35(2), 6-27.

Mitchell, A. J., De Coensel, B., Brown, L. A., & Botteldooren, D. (2023). How do we define soundscape? European Acoustics Association.

Pijanowski, B. C., Villanueva-Rivera, L. J., Dumyahn, S. L., Farina, A., Krause, B. L., Napoletano, B. M., Gage, S. H., & Pieretti, N. (2011). Soundscape ecology: The science of sound in the landscape. Landscape Ecology, 26(9), 1213–1232.

Schafer, R. M. (1977). The tuning of the world. Knopf.