Abstract
Ultrasound is a frequently overlooked feature of our environment
as it is not audible to humans and little is known of its health
effects on humans. Presently, regulations governing noise pollution
in urban areas concern only human-audible sound, and there
are few regulations governing technologies that emit ultrasound
as a by-product of their operation. Moreover, developing fields of
research have highlighted the role of ultrasound in non-human
species communication and the deleterious consequences for some
species of human-produced ultrasound. If urban spaces are to become
more sustainable through urban greening – capable of sustaining
significant populations of non-human species – studies must
be undertaken to begin investigating the presence of ultrasound in
such areas. In this paper, we present an exploratory study of urban
ultrasoundscapes aimed at measuring the presence and levels of ultrasound
in a Danish city center. Our preliminary results show that
there were significant increases in ultrasound at periods throughout
the day with more or less a lower constant presence at locations
that were furthest from major streets. In the urban recordings as
well as one rural recording, however, the highest percentages of
ultrasound occurred during the night and the lowest percentages
were found during midday.
as it is not audible to humans and little is known of its health
effects on humans. Presently, regulations governing noise pollution
in urban areas concern only human-audible sound, and there
are few regulations governing technologies that emit ultrasound
as a by-product of their operation. Moreover, developing fields of
research have highlighted the role of ultrasound in non-human
species communication and the deleterious consequences for some
species of human-produced ultrasound. If urban spaces are to become
more sustainable through urban greening – capable of sustaining
significant populations of non-human species – studies must
be undertaken to begin investigating the presence of ultrasound in
such areas. In this paper, we present an exploratory study of urban
ultrasoundscapes aimed at measuring the presence and levels of ultrasound
in a Danish city center. Our preliminary results show that
there were significant increases in ultrasound at periods throughout
the day with more or less a lower constant presence at locations
that were furthest from major streets. In the urban recordings as
well as one rural recording, however, the highest percentages of
ultrasound occurred during the night and the lowest percentages
were found during midday.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 17th International Audio Mostly Conference : What You Hear is What You See? Perspectives on Modalities in Sound and Music Interaction, AM 2022 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery |
| Publication date | 10 Oct 2022 |
| Pages | 67-73 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-1-4503-9701-8 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 10 Oct 2022 |
| Event | 17th International Audio Mostly Conference - St. Pölten, Austria Duration: 6 Sept 2022 → 9 Sept 2022 |
Conference
| Conference | 17th International Audio Mostly Conference |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Austria |
| City | St. Pölten |
| Period | 06/09/2022 → 09/09/2022 |
Keywords
- Biodiversity
- Recording
- Sustainability
- Ultrasound
- Ultrasoundscape
- Urban space