Listening to Place: Participatory Soundscape Planning for Communities

Urban planning often focuses on the visual world, thus missing key elements necessary to create healthy communities. Listening to Place delves into the sonic world to reveal how sound serves as an essential element when engaging in community planning. This book provides easy-to-use tools that explore sounds from a positive viewpoint, such as identifying and preserving distinct cultural sounds of place, to those that are harmful, particularly loud noise. It also supplies planners with step-by-step processes as well as an explanation of key terms that are important for soundscape planning. A comprehensive rubric of sound sources and how communities might better value them are included, along with a unique ear-appeal assessment exercise that can be conducted by members of all communities. Finally, Listening to Place suggests new strategies for soundscape planning, and offers references to several national ordinances and other resources that describe soundscapes and the environment.