Exploring the dimensions of everyday soundscapes perception in spatiotemporal view: A qualitative approach

Abstract Soundscape measurement has gained attention from researchers across a variety of disciplines and professions. The aim of this study was to explore everyday soundscapes properties as perceived by non-experts and construct a soundscape perception model in the spatiotemporal view and landscape tradition. This study used the conceptual framework of an existing landscape model to construct a soundscape evaluation scale based on the qualitative analysis of 490 semi-structured questionnaires. The evaluation scale has five fundamental dimensions: Perceptible Sound Characteristics, Perceptual Time, Perceptual Place, Audience Subjectivity, and Auditory Imagination. There are 18 primary indexes and 35 secondary indexes. The results indicated that the public’s perception schema of soundscape was similar to that of visual landscape, but had more emotional aspects. Thus, the soundscape can produce abundant auditory mapping in the mind through the involvement of the auditory organs and subsequent cognitive processing and people can provide efficient evolution of the perceptible sound environment as feedback.