Sound quality in environment: ‘‘Psychoacoustic mapping.’’

The annoyance due to noise in the environment is often predicted by analysis software which calculates the A-weighted sound pressure level distribution depending on the sound sources and on the sound propagation caused by them. The actual subjective perceived noise annoyance of the environment does not only depend on the A-weighted sound pressure level, but also on the so-called sound quality along with other parameters like the aspects of a soundscape. The question regarding noise annoyance cannot be predicted by the A-weighted sound pressure level alone. The sound quality perceived by the human hearing depends on, among other things, loudness, roughness and sharpness. The previously known methods for the prediction of the spatial A-weighted sound pressure level distribution based on the propagation are not suitable to predict psycho-acoustic parameters in an adequate way. Especially the roughness caused by modulation or the sharpness generated by the contribution of high frequency sound energy at various distances cannot readily be predicted. In the following it will be shown what the requirements are and especially what the challenges are for making such a psychoacoustic mapping.