Soundscape Perception in Cagliari, Italy

In order to study how acoustic and visual stimuli can influence the perception of the landscape, six Soundscapes and six corresponding Visual Landscapes typical of Cagliari, the capital city of Sardinia, have been selected and characterized through a binaural phonometric sampling and a photographic survey. All 36 possible combinations were submitted to a panel of 107 subjects. The evaluations expressed for the audio/visual associations highlighted how the combination of two different sensorial stimuli gives a wider basis of judgment to the interviewed subjects. The correspondence analysis, through the recognition of common perceptive patterns in the acoustic sensitivity of the local citizens, showed how the sound, more than the image, was the predominant element in the construction of their judgments. The analysis, moreover, singled out some decision parameters in the pleasantness assigned, discriminating the natural environments from the urban ones; the Hi-fi landscapes from the Lo-fi ones; the hi-Leq events from the low-Leq ones. This method suggests some requisites for drawing up an Acoustic Improvement Plan or land planning measures in general that involves the perceptive dimension of the community, particularly the auditory one, in the organization of space.