A Virtual Acoustic Urban Space to Ensure Health and Safety

The built environment is under constant evolution, subject to socio-cultural, but also socio-technical, and environmental forces that transform and adapt the elements composing the city. The resulting changes also have an impact on the different qualities of the built environment. Among these qualities the acoustic environment is an important one as it determines our wellbeing and health.

It also is essential for the functionality of the urban space.

The Virtual Acoustic Urban Space project aims on providing the possibility to listen to future sound environments and carry out perceptual evaluation of these environments.

For this source modelling, microscopic traffic modelling and auralisation techniques are further developed and combined in order to obtain plausible auditory scenes containing the multitude of sounds in the urban space. The approach is demonstrated for the transition to e-mobility. Electric vehicles have the potential to be quieter at low speeds than vehicles with combustion engines.

However due to the low sound emitted by the electric engine regulations demand an Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS). The consequences of the AVAS for the acoustic environment in the urban space are not clear.

It is neither obvious how the AVAS will perform with respect to safety aspects for pedestrians in a complex acoustic environment with many vehicles and many additional sources. The Virtual Acoustic Urban Space will be utilised to investigate these questions.