Revisiting the Concept of Quietness in the Urban Environment—Towards Ecosystems’ Health and Human Well-Being

Aggelos Tsaligopoulos, Stella Kyvelou, Nefta-Eleftheria Votsi, Aimilia Karapostoli, Chris Economou and Yiannis G. Matsinos
Additional contact information
Aggelos Tsaligopoulos: Acoustic Ecology Laboratory, Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, 81100 Mytilene, Greece
Nefta-Eleftheria Votsi: Institute for Environmental Research & Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens, 15236 Athens, Greece
Aimilia Karapostoli: School of Architectural Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi, Greece
Chris Economou: Acoustic Ecology Laboratory, Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, 81100 Mytilene, Greece
Yiannis G. Matsinos: Acoustic Ecology Laboratory, Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, 81100 Mytilene, Greece

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-19

Abstract: There is plenty of proof that environmental noise is a major pollutant in the urban environment. Several approaches were successfully applied for its calculation, visualization, prediction and mitigation. The goal of all strategy plans regards its reduction and the creation of quietness. This study aims to revisit the concept of quietness in the urban environment and attempts to portray a new understanding of the specific phenomena. “Quietness” as a term retains an ambiguity, and so far, it can be described as the lack of something, meaning the lack of noise that is portrayed by means of intensity. Several studies describe quietness as the combination of perceptual soundscape elements and contextual factors that can be quantified, combined, weighed and used as indicators of healthy soundscapes. In this research, the focus is on setting aside all indicators, either measuring the intensity or contextual ones and use solely quantifiable metrics regarding the acoustic environment, thus introducing a new composite index called the composite urban quietness index (CUQI). After testing the CUQI, in order to verify the results of previous research regarding the identification of quiet Areas in the city of Mytilene (Lesbos Island, Greece), the study concludes that CUQI is efficiently functioning even in this early stage of development.

Keywords: environmental noise; quietness; acoustic environment; soundscape; composite index; urban quiet (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3151/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3151/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3151-:d:519836

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().