IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i22p11774-d675641.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Associations between Personal Attitudes towards COVID-19 and Public Space Soundscape Assessment: An Example from Antwerp, Belgium

Author

Listed:
  • Francesco Aletta

    (Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering, University College London, The Bartlett, 14 Upper Woburn Place, London WC1H 0NN, UK)

  • Timothy Van Renterghem

    (WAVES Research Group, Department of Information Technology, Ghent University, Technologiepark 126, B 9052 Gent, Belgium)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the lockdown events and policies that followed, led to significant changes in the built environment and how it is experienced by people and communities. Among those, variations in the acoustic environments were some of the most noticeable in cities. This study investigated the relationships between the perception of the acoustic environment (i.e., soundscape) and different personal factors such as attitudes towards the pandemic and noise sensitivity, by performing a survey with 109 participants in an urban green public space in Antwerp (Belgium), shortly after most restrictions issued by the government were lifted in September 2020 when the first contamination wave ended. While preliminary in nature, the results of this data collection campaign show that people actively changing their behaviors (using less public transport or cycling more) assessed the soundscapes as less vibrant/exciting. People who were more concerned about the pandemic tended to notice more natural sounds and noise from traffic on nearby local roads. This same subset also put a bigger importance on the environmental quality of the public space than in the pre-pandemic period. Noise sensitivity also played a role, as an association was found between more-than-average noise sensitive persons and those more worried regarding the pandemic. Overall, the findings of this study confirm that at least part of the people have started to perceive the public space, including its soundscape, differently since the start of the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Aletta & Timothy Van Renterghem, 2021. "Associations between Personal Attitudes towards COVID-19 and Public Space Soundscape Assessment: An Example from Antwerp, Belgium," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-15, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:22:p:11774-:d:675641
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/11774/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/11774/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jing Xie & Shixian Luo & Katsunori Furuya & Dajiang Sun, 2020. "Urban Parks as Green Buffers During the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Daniel Steele & Catherine Guastavino, 2021. "Quieted City Sounds during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Montreal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-21, May.
    3. Daniel Steele & Edda Bild & Cynthia Tarlao & Catherine Guastavino, 2019. "Soundtracking the Public Space: Outcomes of the Musikiosk Soundscape Intervention," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-38, May.
    4. César Asensio & Pierre Aumond & Arnaud Can & Luis Gascó & Peter Lercher & Jean-Marc Wunderli & Catherine Lavandier & Guillermo de Arcas & Carlos Ribeiro & Patricio Muñoz & Gaetano Licitra, 2020. "A Taxonomy Proposal for the Assessment of the Changes in Soundscape Resulting from the COVID-19 Lockdown," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-9, June.
    5. Timothy Van Renterghem & Francesco Aletta & Dick Botteldooren, 2021. "Changes in the Soundscape of the Public Space Close to a Highway by a Noise Control Intervention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-16, May.
    6. Vikas Mehta, 2020. "The new proxemics: COVID-19, social distancing, and sociable space," Journal of Urban Design, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(6), pages 669-674, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Caterina Quaglio & Elena Todella & Isabella M. Lami, 2021. "Adequate Housing and COVID-19: Assessing the Potential for Value Creation through the Project," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-17, September.
    2. Jing Jing, 2022. "Seeing Streetscapes as Social Infrastructure: A Paradigmatic Case Study of Hornsbergs Strand, Stockholm," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 510-522.
    3. Yanlong Guo & Ke Wang & Han Zhang & Zuoqing Jiang, 2022. "Soundscape Perception Preference in an Urban Forest Park: Evidence from Moon Island Forest Park in Lu’an City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-15, December.
    4. Francesco Aletta & Jian Kang, 2019. "Promoting Healthy and Supportive Acoustic Environments: Going beyond the Quietness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-4, December.
    5. Yue Du & Zan Zou & Yaodong He & Yongge Zhou & Shixian Luo, 2022. "Beyond Blue and Green Spaces: Identifying and Characterizing Restorative Environments on Sichuan Technology and Business University Campus," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-17, October.
    6. Christoph Lambio & Tillman Schmitz & Richard Elson & Jeffrey Butler & Alexandra Roth & Silke Feller & Nicolai Savaskan & Tobia Lakes, 2023. "Exploring the Spatial Relative Risk of COVID-19 in Berlin-Neukölln," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(10), pages 1-22, May.
    7. Emad B. Dawwas & Karen Dyson, 2021. "COVID-19 Changed Human-Nature Interactions across Green Space Types: Evidence of Change in Multiple Types of Activities from the West Bank, Palestine," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-21, December.
    8. Shixian Luo & Jing Xie & Katsunori Furuya, 2021. "“We Need such a Space”: Residents’ Motives for Visiting Urban Green Spaces during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-18, June.
    9. Noszczyk, Tomasz & Gorzelany, Julia & Kukulska-Kozieł, Anita & Hernik, Józef, 2022. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the importance of urban green spaces to the public," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    10. Sang-Jun Park & Kyung-Tae Lee & Jin-Bin Im & Ju-Hyung Kim, 2022. "The Need for Smart Architecture Caused by the Impact of COVID-19 upon Architecture and City: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-20, June.
    11. Angelo Panno & Annalisa Theodorou & Giuseppe Alessio Carbone & Evelina De Longis & Chiara Massullo & Gianluca Cepale & Giuseppe Carrus & Claudio Imperatori & Giovanni Sanesi, 2021. "Go Greener, Less Risk: Access to Nature Is Associated with Lower Risk Taking in Different Domains during the COVID-19 Lockdown," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-17, September.
    12. Daniel Bonet-Solà & Ester Vidaña-Vila & Rosa Ma Alsina-Pagès, 2023. "Analysis and Acoustic Event Classification of Environmental Data Collected in a Citizen Science Project," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-23, February.
    13. Angel M. Dzhambov & Peter Lercher & Drozdstoy Stoyanov & Nadezhda Petrova & Stoyan Novakov & Donka D. Dimitrova, 2021. "University Students’ Self-Rated Health in Relation to Perceived Acoustic Environment during the COVID-19 Home Quarantine," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-21, March.
    14. Yuta Uchiyama & Ryo Kohsaka, 2020. "Access and Use of Green Areas during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Green Infrastructure Management in the “New Normal”," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-9, November.
    15. Mouratidis, Kostas, 2021. "How COVID-19 reshaped quality of life in cities: A synthesis and implications for urban planning," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    16. Mengyuan Qiu & Ji Sha & Sulistyo Utomo, 2020. "Listening to Forests: Comparing the Perceived Restorative Characteristics of Natural Soundscapes before and after the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-20, December.
    17. Andrea, Veronika, 2022. "Mediterranean forest policy beyond the Paris Climate Agreement," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    18. David Welch & Mark Reybrouck & Piotr Podlipniak, 2022. "Meaning in Music Is Intentional, but in Soundscape It Is Not—A Naturalistic Approach to the Qualia of Sounds," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-18, December.
    19. Achilleas Psyllidis & Fábio Duarte & Roos Teeuwen & Arianna Salazar Miranda & Tom Benson & Alessandro Bozzon, 2023. "Cities and infectious diseases: Assessing the exposure of pedestrians to virus transmission along city streets," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(9), pages 1610-1628, July.
    20. Katarzyna Hodor & Łukasz Przybylak & Jacek Kuśmierski & Magdalena Wilkosz-Mamcarczyk, 2021. "Identification and Analysis of Problems in Selected European Historic Gardens during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-17, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:22:p:11774-:d:675641. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.